# fish gasping for air?



## troyino777 (Dec 10, 2008)

hey i got a little problem changed the water in my tank earlier, and now there all weird there all at the top like gasping for air??, anyone knnow whats wrong?

changed it like 8 hours ago, they seemed fine then when i was goin to bed i turned there lights off then thats when it started, even my two cat fish are doin the same, i took the rocks out and added sand, the water is still a bit cloudy, did i maybe change to much water, or the sand in the water affecting them??


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

did u use dechlorinator?....do u have enough oxygen (water movement) in the tank...and maybe replacing the substrate right after a water change took away alot of your beneficial bacteria...not too mention depending on ure tank cleaning habbits if u have been doin water changes often or siphoning the gravel..it could have stirred up a whole bunch of nasty **** from the substrate and is causing ure water to spike


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## troyino777 (Dec 10, 2008)

i think its the oxygen, i just had one almost go on me ( he was at the bottom of the tank and pretty was pretty much dead) and i quickly switched him over to a 20g i have set up. how can i fix this?


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

create more water movenment in the water....what kind of filter do you have?...do u have a pump with airstone or powerheads powerheads?...


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## troyino777 (Dec 10, 2008)

in the cooler i just set up theres no filter right now but in my normal tank (the one they where in) is an aquatank 20-40g?, they where all almost dead floating on their side, laying on the bottom, quickly changed them over to new water added some cycle and tap water conditioner, they seem more lively now but still not sure what to do


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

well what kind of fish do you have....what size is the tank?


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## troyino777 (Dec 10, 2008)

40g, have mbuna cichlids, right now there just in a pop cooler haha maybe 10 gals?


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

do u have any test strips u might want to check the parameters of ure water in the 40G....if those are all normal and it is in fact an oxygen issue u can try removing some water and let the water coming out of the filter drop a couple inches and splash on the surface whish would create some temporary water movement


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## troyino777 (Dec 10, 2008)

i dont have any test strips, and its 4am here so im kind of out of luck haha. im pretty sure it must have been the oxygen though because there doing fine now that there in fresh water. what should i do with them though its kind of a tight squeeze in the cooler and im scared if i put them back in the tank the same thing will happend. what do u recommend i do? thanks for the help by the way


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

BRANT13 said:


> do u have any test strips u might want to check the parameters of ure water in the 40G....if those are all normal and it is in fact an oxygen issue u can try removing some water and let the water coming out of the filter drop a couple inches and splash on the surface whish would create some temporary water movement


....since u dont have n e strips to test perameters its hard to say...but like i said if u thinks its just the oxygen and u dont think its an amonia issue or anything like that...(depends on ure maintenance habbits)....then i would lower the water level and let the water fall out of the filter on the surface and create kind of a water fall effect to get some oxygen diffused into the water...also if u have any air pumps id set them u as well even if u dont have air stones juss hook up some tubing and station them around the tank to get that water movin


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

how many fish are in this 40 gallon..how big are they...and what kind mbuna


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## troyino777 (Dec 10, 2008)

red zebras(5) , yellow labs(1) , blue zebra (2) venustus (2) and 2 catfish


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

how big are they....none of these fish besides possibly the cats and labs should be kept in a tank this small....


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

stress is probably whats killing ure fish


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## 55gal (Jan 19, 2009)

Seems to me like you have a water problem, with no way of testing I would just continue with water changes 30% everyday until you get your water tested. Bring a sample of your water to your LFS, they should be able to tell you what your water specs. are, and what you need to do to resolve problem


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## SupeDM (Jan 26, 2009)

Like canada here in minnesota we have a problem with the water containing too much dissolved gas in the winter. I have killed a tank full of fish before with this problem. The only way to solve this is to airate the living @#$# out of the water. It has something to do with how cold the ground water is. It can cause embolism and bubbles on the gills of the fish. When I researched the problem I had Many people recommended using a air pump and stones on buckets of replacement water.


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