When I first bought a clown, I noticed he would be gasping in the morning but would quit a couple hours later. I thought he was scared from the light coming on. When I bought my second clown, they both were breathing hard for some time evey morning. I added an air stone and small outside pump to my 10 gallon nano and no gasping fish anymore. I put the airstone in the back compartment because salt would build up around the fans. I thought with waterflow and plants and live rock it was enough oxygen but it isn't.
Gasping fish
- Thread starter Chubosco
- Start date
A
Anonymous
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With an issue like this I would look at your overall bioload possibly being too high. Sure more water flow, better surface skimming (that film will reduce the ability of O2 / CO2 exchange which in truth is far more important then the O2 that plants add to your tank during the day), and other things like your airstone fix, may help but to me this indicates a larger issue. At night all of your organisms become O2 consumers. The symptom your seeing (fish breathing heavily) is just the surface of the problem that can result from this. Increased CO2 levels can effect pH, Alkalinity, algae growth and numerous other water quality issues - all detrimental to the health of your tank. Definitly aim the pump more toward the surface of the water to get more surface agitation and maybe start testing pH morning vs night to see if your getting wide fluxuations.
I have the water flow aimed at the bottom to discourge algae. I will reposition the flow toward the top. Now for the most frightening news. I have never tested for anything in my tank. I feel the guilt and I know I'm begging for trouble; but, I have many things that are happy! I'm happy too! I am sooo unprofessional. Somehow it works, I'm going to change, I promise. It's just that it all seems so natural like nature intended. Why pay out additional money for testing. I do test for the gravity and salinity. Salinity always at 30 and gravity at 1.022. I will begin testing simply because I need to learn, I'm putting togeather (slowly) a 180 gallon. On the down side, I have buried two starfish. I give up on those.
I have buried my share of star fish and came to understand that they are no good for a a nano we have a few mini stars that just appeared no bigger than a pencil eraser
as for testing if it is the learning to read them that scares you take them to a lfs to test I use a test kit from aquarium pharm that is fairly easy to read , if it is just time it only take 15 -20 minutes a month to do it will give you a heads up on any incoming problems to take steps to fix it we found that we had a spike in our trates or trites ( cant remember which ) but it gave me time to get more salt get it mixed and airated by the time it was ready (24 hours) we tested again and they had sky rocketed so I did a massive change . As for feeling guilty dont we all start some where and are learning so try to change that as a learning tool I tried the natural rout before I found this site and tried to go the no testing way and killed more nemos than sould have died ! simply because I did not think that I needed to learn or to test .....
A
Anonymous
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Yea testing is one of those things that I think many don't do often enough - myself included, I very rarely test my big tank anymore as it has been up and running so long it is very stable. But when starting a tank and whenever adding new stuff testing is very important as sadielynn said it gives you a baseline to compare against should a problem arise. Adding just one more fish or a couple corals to a nano can completely shift the balance of equalibrium. One other thought - if you add suppliments - you need to test for that sup. A freind of mine drives me crazy, he doses all kinds of stuff and don't test for any of them, uggggggg! how do you know your tank needs that!
Adding the casette skimmer can help break up the suface scum and increase your oxygen exchange. Replace the minijet with a larger pump, and use the venturi attachment to add an airline. (As the pump runs it sucks in air.) This will help as well.
The fact that the clowns were only having problems in the morning makes me think it might be a pH swing. Most tanks will drop a bit during the night, then come back up during the day. Carbon dioxide in the surrounding air can keep pH levels down and some people have managed to fix it by adding air pumps with airline tubing run to suck air from a window. I know it sounds bizarre. I just can't see why your oxygen levels would change from early morning to later in the day, but I can see your pH levels changing that way. Perhaps adding the airstone is simply helping to keep that swing in check.
GO GET YOUR WATER TESTED!
That's the only reliable way to know what's really going on.
B
The fact that the clowns were only having problems in the morning makes me think it might be a pH swing. Most tanks will drop a bit during the night, then come back up during the day. Carbon dioxide in the surrounding air can keep pH levels down and some people have managed to fix it by adding air pumps with airline tubing run to suck air from a window. I know it sounds bizarre. I just can't see why your oxygen levels would change from early morning to later in the day, but I can see your pH levels changing that way. Perhaps adding the airstone is simply helping to keep that swing in check.
GO GET YOUR WATER TESTED!
That's the only reliable way to know what's really going on.
B
O.K. Problom solved. I did a water change today and low and behold, the pump was just barely pumping. Now in defense of such a major oversight, let the court be well aware; I must lean down to look at the top of the water and see it flowing. Yes, I do indeed do this; but, I had become placid and as long as there was ripples, I thought this was satisfactory. BIG MISTAKE! Took the pump apart (big step for me) and it was blocked by seaweed (a varity of plants in tank jumbled up). But, incyor, you have me thinking about water testing to solve a larger question in my mind. I have read where people wonder about cement plugs and if it changes water chemistry. Well...now I have a concern about my hammer on a big long plug. I had began to worry this was the problem. Let's find out.