Talking Fish

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Water quality is raised by doing the appropriate amount of water changes, siphoning waste out before it decays, and/or adding more filters and biomedia.
Re-cycling your tank will do nothing more than start you back at the beginning like when you first set it up and you'll end up right back where you are now.

Are you talking about the tank that also houses your turtles? If that's the case you'll never be able to maintain good water quality for your fish. It's just not possible without a larger amount of water or a ridiculous water change schedule. Your filter only removes ammonia and nitrites. Nitrates are only removed when you do water changes.

Test your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and do water changes and siphon accordingly. That's the only way to maintain proper water quality.

I kind of agree about the gasping at the surface and I kind of don't. If they're not gasping at the surface you have less of a problem, but if they're gasping heavily anywhere there may be a problem. Natives take some very very very bad water quality to gasp at the top of the water. I once cycled a whole 90g tank full of natives and they never missed a beat.
 
I gotta disagree a little here. If your fishes mouth is moving ALL the time then I would say your tank is not well enought oxygenated. In my tanks the stock is pretty low (for once in my life :)) and the surface agitation is pretty extreme and the fish only move thier mouths to force water over their gills after periods of increased activity. When they are resting or just floating they don't move thier mouths at all.

Check your water quality like everyone else suggested and if thats all good consider adding a power head or air stone to increase the surface agitation...I'll bet your fish suddenly stops "moving his mouth" most of the time.
 
My fish move thier mouths very slowly because there is plenty of DO in the water due to my spray bar pushing water up, which than causes the water to move a heap. Like a HOB. That and its a small tank with a huge turnover rate.

spraybaruo6.jpg
 
haha thanks.
the pumpkinseed that was talking was at the bottom of the tank.
he wasn't like "gasping" looked like a calm "talk"

but now that I looked at the big bluegill and pumpkin.
they're not moving their mouths at all..barely. just a tiny bit(is that normal?) like, you can't even barely even see the movement..just moving the lips i guess..
 
Yes thats normal...you always need to look at ALL the fish in the tank although your right to ask questions.

As the wise man once said...The ONLY stupid question is the one you forget to ask....well that and..." Do these pants make my butt look big? " but then all real men will rip out thier tongues before answering THAT one.
 
JEAE21;1243565; said:
haha thanks.
the pumpkinseed that was talking was at the bottom of the tank.
he wasn't like "gasping" looked like a calm "talk"

but now that I looked at the big bluegill and pumpkin.
they're not moving their mouths at all..barely. just a tiny bit(is that normal?) like, you can't even barely even see the movement..just moving the lips i guess..

Yeah, some fish will move their mouths a lot more. My longear always look like they're barely breathing and my bass moves his mouth a lot more. As long as it doesn't look like they're gasping for breath though it should be ok.
 
haha duke33; sorry i'm new to this.lol

wolf; the rest of the fish are too small to see their mouth movement, haha.

shadow; what is gasping though? opening really big really fast constantly?
will it happen after they get tired?(say chasing fish)
 
JEAE21;1242378; said:
lol wolf, just moving his mouth constantly.
water temp is above 78F.

could be water quality then..i have to "cycle" once again...
i think i can't see the other fish do it since they're so small..

what do you mean by heavily though?
What do you mean by "cycle once again" ??
You should only have to cycle the tank once, unless there is a major mishap, or other issues.
 
Gasping is basicly when they seem to put more effort into it...It can take a while to get used to all this stuff.
 
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