I'm picturing a frantic fish at the surface. I'm sitting here watching one of my angelfish calmly gulping bubbles or something right at the surface, then spitting it all back out. 
What is he doing??
What is he doing??
What does gasping for air look like?
- Thread starter forddna
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Check your co2 levels... When i was pumping to much co2 into one of my tanks i found one of my fish just sitting on a log that was close to the surface just opening and shutting its mouth... once i moved him he turned out just fine... never made it back into the planted tank.
Low oxygen levels, possibly not enough circulation. Normally they will gape at the surface like that if there isn't enough dissolved oxygen in the tank. Since oxygen diffusion happens on the surface of the water, thats probably your prob. 
Placing a powerhead at(or near) the water surface is enough to help with gas exchange....If you have a canister outlet that is a bar, have it break the surface instead of sinking it....
I had a banded shark that would always come to the surface and gasp. gasp so loud you could hear it in another room. It ALWAYS did it when I would feed, sucking food off the glass with a loud suction sound. Then I would catch him at other times doing it even with no food in the tank. What a wierd fish!??
Hency why people use airstones, a stream of bubbles causes a vertical current, just like uneven heating on the earths surface creates thermal vents which lifts warm air higher into the atmosphere. An airstone will have this effect, lightly pressurizing a column of water until it hits surface, where it spreads out and agitates the surface, thus creating a point of oxygen exchange. a Powerhead isnt completely necessary, just another luxury item that does work!
Hency why people use airstones, a stream of bubbles causes a vertical current, just like uneven heating on the earths surface creates thermal vents which lifts warm air higher into the atmosphere. An airstone will have this effect, lightly pressurizing a column of water until it hits surface, where it spreads out and agitates the surface, thus creating a point of oxygen exchange. a Powerhead isnt completely necessary, just another luxury item that does work!
Well, he did it for that few minutes and stopped. He was completely calm the entire time, and it looked more like he was eating water, then regurgitating it. So I don't know.
Any chance it has something to do with my other angel bullying him? The angel in question had always been the bully, the other more passive, and all of a sudden, the roles were reversed yesterday and the original bully started doing this.