Hi All,
I woke to a very disturbing sight a few moments ago in my 180g. The entire population of the tank was breathing very hard; my Hydrolycus Tatuaia was looking fairly distressed whilst my Geophagus were all lying lazily on the substrate. The only fish that didn't seem to be affected were my Hoplyerythrinus. U. The only thing i can pin it on right now is my air pump dying during the night but i'll give a quick run down anyway.
Symptoms;
Characins- Heavy breathing, remaining close to the surface. Lazy swimming.
Chiclids- Heavy breathing, remaning on the bottom but with full daytime colouration (Unusual for my guys as they would usually be much darker in the morning)
Other- Heavy splashing throughout the right, gasping at the surface. AS said, the only fish not to be affected are my Wolves and i can only assume that is because they can breath from the surface
Parameters;
Amm; 0ppm
N'rite; 0ppm
N'ate; <10ppm (there is still a few cichlid pelets floating so i can only assume that this is due to a bit of food left from last night. Usually my parameters are nigh on perfect.)
Temp 81deg C (according to a sticky thermometer on the glass)
40% water changes every week, aditional smal changes as required
Equipment; 2x 300w heaters
Fluval FX5
Usually 1 heavy duty air pump but this died last night. I've got it going again but added a second air pump so there is lots of air being pumped in at the moment.
Other;
I've also just done another water change, is only to remove some of the poorly oxygenated water to introduce some fresh but also to break the surface (short of stirning the water with my hand, i thought this possibly the best method.) No meds have been added, no new additions, no significant changes in the last month.
So, with the above in mind, i'm nearly certain that the aeration is the cause, but an aducated second opinion wouldn't go a miss. However, the conditions i found the tank this morning denote something more severe than 8 or so hours without aeration unless my relatively high temps exhaserbated the issue?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
I woke to a very disturbing sight a few moments ago in my 180g. The entire population of the tank was breathing very hard; my Hydrolycus Tatuaia was looking fairly distressed whilst my Geophagus were all lying lazily on the substrate. The only fish that didn't seem to be affected were my Hoplyerythrinus. U. The only thing i can pin it on right now is my air pump dying during the night but i'll give a quick run down anyway.
Symptoms;
Characins- Heavy breathing, remaining close to the surface. Lazy swimming.
Chiclids- Heavy breathing, remaning on the bottom but with full daytime colouration (Unusual for my guys as they would usually be much darker in the morning)
Other- Heavy splashing throughout the right, gasping at the surface. AS said, the only fish not to be affected are my Wolves and i can only assume that is because they can breath from the surface
Parameters;
Amm; 0ppm
N'rite; 0ppm
N'ate; <10ppm (there is still a few cichlid pelets floating so i can only assume that this is due to a bit of food left from last night. Usually my parameters are nigh on perfect.)
Temp 81deg C (according to a sticky thermometer on the glass)
40% water changes every week, aditional smal changes as required
Equipment; 2x 300w heaters
Fluval FX5
Usually 1 heavy duty air pump but this died last night. I've got it going again but added a second air pump so there is lots of air being pumped in at the moment.
Other;
I've also just done another water change, is only to remove some of the poorly oxygenated water to introduce some fresh but also to break the surface (short of stirning the water with my hand, i thought this possibly the best method.) No meds have been added, no new additions, no significant changes in the last month.
So, with the above in mind, i'm nearly certain that the aeration is the cause, but an aducated second opinion wouldn't go a miss. However, the conditions i found the tank this morning denote something more severe than 8 or so hours without aeration unless my relatively high temps exhaserbated the issue?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
