Fish At Surface When Light Is Off

[cane76]

so its not a water quality problem then
first things first id do a 30% water change now if they are still at the surface
have you got good surface aggitation?what filters are you using?

 

[Michelleuk]

rena x2 external filter

 

[Michelleuk]

I have 1 cory cat fish and a CAE.

I am planning to get 3 x more cory catfish today.

 

[caino]

i think its just something that fish do. All my fish sometimes just sit at the surface resting on the water tension. And are your bottom dwellers showing any sign of stress...

 

[Michelleuk]

i dont think so. the catfish came up twice. but he/she hides at the back. loach is also hiding somewhere.

 

[geo7x]

my fish kind of do this, theyre hengeli rasboras. They kind of go into cover amognst the floating plants that i have.

 

[fenwoman]

They were all up there earlier this morning - even the cardinals tetras which are very hardy.

As the room is gettin lighter they are coming down or it may be due to the air pump being on for a while??

about 5 still at the top.

Do you turn off the pump at night? If so why?

 

[Michelleuk]

dont need it as i have filter on.

 

[Majjie]

My fish did this in the summer when it was very hot (and therefore less oxygen in the water) - just in the mornings, because the plants haven't been giving out oxygen during the night.

Adding an extra air supply completely cured it. If you've just added extra air, I'd leave it on overnight and see if this makes a difference.

I cured it permanently by turning the filter outlet upwards, so that there was more disturbance of the water surface.

 

[Michelleuk]

ok i will try that.

 

[VidVid]

hey...plants respire at night and since you have a lot of plants, the Co2 (carbon dioxide) increases...Its really photosynthesis...When the lights are on, the plants release oxygen as their waste product (this explains why the fish are alright after lights are on)...But at night, the plants release Co2 and that may be the cause of your problem...Do not turn on an airstone in the tank while the lights are on (if your tank is heavily planted) since plants require a bit of Co2 plus the aquarium lighting to create oxygen and thrive...Turning on an airstone at night time will help with your problem by agitating the water surface enough thus diffusing Co2 out of the aquarium when the plants don't need to use it (thus giving an extra supply of oxygen and reducing the increasing supply of carbon dioxide)...Hope this helps.

 

[fenwoman]

dont need it as i have filter on.

So what does your pump doe? Add oxygen?? If you switch it off and it stops adding oxygen and the fish start gasping at the surface, I think you have your answer.

 

[mikeb2k2001]

My fish used to do this when the light was turned off. It never seemed to be a problem, as they'd get back to 'normal' after 30 minutes of the tube lights being back on.

 

[kribensis12]

Like vidvid said that they give of oxegen and in the night they give of CO2 try turning your pump at night. Filters arnt always a miracle worker.

 

[demonmagus]

hey...plants respire at night and since you have a lot of plants, the Co2 (carbon dioxide) increases...Its really photosynthesis...When the lights are on, the plants release oxygen as their waste product (this explains why the fish are alright after lights are on)...But at night, the plants release Co2 and that may be the cause of your problem...Do not turn on an airstone in the tank while the lights are on (if your tank is heavily planted) since plants require a bit of Co2 plus the aquarium lighting to create oxygen and thrive...Turning on an airstone at night time will help with your problem by agitating the water surface enough thus diffusing Co2 out of the aquarium when the plants don't need to use it (thus giving an extra supply of oxygen and reducing the increasing supply of carbon dioxide)...Hope this helps.

damn I've just done my bio mock and wanted to sound clever

yeh basically when plants make food for themsleves they excrete oxygen in the day and in the night they use the same process as us humans normally, so they give out carbon dioxide