Fish breathing question

[bbq1234]

Hello i just brought my water to petsmart and said my water was fully cycled after only 3 days!!! faster for me ever
I put my fish in and they are opening and closing there mouths really quick is this cuz they cant breathe and are gasping for breath??
i think they did this when i first got a tank about 8 months ago but cant remember

 

[Pearlie]

....

The pessimist in me says a tank cannot be fully cycled in 3 days (if it is, AWESOME, tell us how you did it ).

The two reasons I know of for fish gasping for air is poor oxygenation of the water (bubbles actually don't help, you need the surface of the water to be 'broken', ie moving, to allow oxygen transfer into the water), and high ammonia. What are you using for water flow? Ie, power heads, etc etc?

 

[bbq1234]

im using a top fin 30 gallon filter , ammonia isnt a problem the pets mart ppl said. They said the ph is a lil high but nothing to be worried about. I think they were just doin that cuz they were scared now as they move around there not doing it as much... home sickness

 

[bbq1234]

How did i cycle my tank so fast well fist i used neutral ph regulater which does a good job of getting rid of chloarmine and ammonia and regyulates the ph to 7.0
next i added bio safe everyday and mardel copper safe .......

 

[Pearlie]

I think they were just doin that cuz they were scared now as they move around there not doing it as much... home sickness

Definitely a possibility as well. And, seems problem resolved.

 

[sinistral]

Hello i just brought my water to petsmart and said my water was fully cycled after only 3 days!!!

I am a bit confused by what you are describing. If I understand you correctly, you've set up a new tank, put in biosafe, copper safe and a pH regulator for 3 days, and then brought your water to a petstore for testing. They said your tank was fully cycled, and you added fish.

Again, if I have understood you correctly, I would have to disagree with the notion that your tank is fully cycled. If anything, it's the opposite. If the petstore didn't test for nitrates, then a completely uncycled tank would look identical to a fully cycled tank: that is, ammonia and nitrites at 0.

Cycling refers to the process of growing in bacterial colonies in a filter by providing them with ammonia and nitrites. Without a source of ammonia for the 3 days, unfortunately none of that has happened. I'd retest your ammonia and nitrites. How many fish did you add? How large is your tank? Perhaps you have added a mature filter to the tank?