Fish All Swimming At The Top

[Spannaz]

Changed tanks yesterday, kept filter and media and salvage about 50litres, remainder had to be new water, but fish were not readded until up to temperature, now they are all swimming at the top? any ideas

1. 10gh 6kh 7.25ph 0.6mg/l
2. all but plecos swimming at top
3. done yesterday (within last 24hrs approx 400l,
4 no chemicals added apart from dechlorinated solution
5. Mollies, plecos guppies tetra
6. No new fish have been added

 

[Spannaz]

forgot to add that it is a planted tank with no airstone, didnt know if that would make any difference

 

[mattlee]

did the old tank have airstones running? the reason i ask is when my air pump packed in for a day or so until i could replace it my fish did the same. maybe they were used to a more oxygenated water source! when i put new pump on they were all fine again......

 

[Spannaz]

did the old tank have airstones running? the reason i ask is when my air pump packed in for a day or so until i could replace it my fish did the same. maybe they were used to a more oxygenated water source! when i put new pump on they were all fine again......

no, but i am wondering if its due to the reduced number of plants to litres of water? The last tank was 240 litres, and had the same plants with the 440l
Apart from volume of water (and obvious large amount of water change) nothing else is different apart from their surroundings have got a big bigger.

 

[Tom499]

Wouldnt have thought that a change in plant number would have such an effect short term, may just be they're nervous to their new conditions?

Have you taken some water stats?

Are the fish acting like they're gasping?

 

[Spannaz]

Wouldnt have thought that a change in plant number would have such an effect short term, may just be they're nervous to their new conditions?

Have you taken some water stats?

Are the fish acting like they're gasping?

7.25ph
nitrates at .6 mg/l

yes they do look like they are gasping

 

[Tom499]

Hopefully someone more experienced will turn up soon.

If the temp was safe when you added them dechlorinator added to the correct amount, and the filter is mature and big enough for the tank, I'm running out of ideas..

Could get the filter creating ripples to help oxygenate as it were, maybe such a large water change, 50 litres of 400 litres is the cause? that is a big change, if I've understood what you said.

 

[Tolak]

Nitrite will inhibit a fish's blood from carrying O2. This is why you are seeing them at the surface. Do a large water change, 50% or better, and increase surface motion. Feed lightly, about 1/3 normal, less food means less waste produced.

 

[Spannaz]

Hopefully someone more experienced will turn up soon.

If the temp was safe when you added them dechlorinator added to the correct amount, and the filter is mature and big enough for the tank, I'm running out of ideas..

Could get the filter creating ripples to help oxygenate as it were, maybe such a large water change, 50 litres of 400 litres is the cause? that is a big change, if I've understood what you said.

yes i saved only 50 litres of the old water and had to make the rest up in new water. Have dropped an air stone in (just in case) or until someone can give me anymore ideas as to what i might have done wrong. Many thanks for your help though, i understand it is xmas day and everyone is busy

 

[OldMan47]

You need to follow Tolak's advice. Nitrites affect fish the way carbon monoxide affects mammals. No matter how much oxygen is in the water, the fish can't use it because the hemoglobin in their blood becomes tied up with the nitrites. Until you get the nitrites down below 0.25 ppm, the fish will continue to suffer, even if you put 20 air stones in the tank. This is not a guess, it is a fact.

 

[Tolak]

As far as what you have done wrong; the media may have dried out a little, the filtration may be barely adequate for the bio load as far as biological media is concerned, or there may have been more nitrifying bacteria present in the substrate and coating the tank decorations and tank itself than you had thought. It may be a combination of parts of all of these.

If I'm cloning a new tank or otherwise switching stock around I fast the fish for 24 hours before the switch whenever possible. I feed lightly for the next week whenever possible. When this is not possible I'm changing a lot of water daily, close to 100% if need be.

What caused it is history, you can't change it but can learn from it. What you do have to deal with is the present and near future. Having nitrite but no ammonia means it is just a spike, but still does require immediate large water changes. The old water holds a tiny percentage nitrifying bacteria in a cycled tank, Most is in your filter media, a small percentage is coating the decorations & tank surface. The new water itself is not a problem.

 

[didz04]

I never new about that so it has helped me, as i have had my cichlids from a 2ft to 3ft to lastly a 4ft tank.
So i never had any problems but when i had my new setup for a 4ft tank, they guy had 5 oscars of sizes of 11", 11", 10", 12" and 5", one severum at 8", one convict at 4" and a juwel cichlid at 4" also.
As you would know these were not suitable for 4ft tank at their size so i planned to get rid of them before hand and the guy came 2 days after i brought down the tank. He didn't give a filter and he had aeverything in bags and a lot of stuff so i had to use my 4 fluval for the 4ft, and all my fish including my Congo tinanti cichlid (who is a bottom dweller and has a small bladder so he is not really a long term swimmer) was swimming all the way through. I quickly put the temperature down which i knew would take a while to decrease so i also placed in an air stone and it helped straight away.

Several times i had done it where i have used the atleast 25% of water from the previous tank setup and the rest tap water, and put straight in after once temperature is right, and never had any problems even with my puffers.
When i first started fish keeping I didn't research about having a cycled water before putting fish in, so full tap water in the right temperature at around 25-26 degrees. I put in 2 sword tails and 2 molly's, they all survived and they were all swimming around except one male molly. Which he looked ill once we put him in.

One question - When people cycle the tank i read that people are sayting to use guppy's and other cheap fish to cycle the tank. Wouldn't that be just as wrong as putting in other bigger fish or is it that they can tolerate a uncycled tank?

Thanks, and sorry Spannaz as i have gone a bit off topic and may not be help to you.