gasping fish

[RYO]

i noticed when i came home most of my fish seemed to be gasping ,realy fast gill movement. i tested the water nothing strange here. so did a large waterchange, but they still seem to be gasping a bit and swimming high in the water. filter is working fine.
water perams are
ph 6.4
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0-5 ppm (bit hard to tell)
kh 35.8 ppm
gh 17.9 ppm
temp 74 f

 

[tstenback]

The symptoms lead me to think that this is a nitrite problem but your readings indicate that it is not. Notice any outer symptoms on the skin of the fish? Are the gills overly red or brown in color? Did this start when you did something ie. water change, new addition to the tank? Keep us posted

 

[RYO]

over night i aded an airstone just to see if it would help(seems to have worked, no deaths)

tstenback -only a couple of fish seem to be a bit pinkish round the gills- glowlights and danio
tested again for nitrite but still comes up zero-ill take a sample of water this morning to lfs just incase its my test kit gone pearshaped.

the only change done to tank was over a week ago, the gravel was swapped out for sand, so i was watching out for a spike in ammonia and nitrites.
ill keep you posted on results

cheers

 

[Jimmy927]

Hi
im new to this site but im not at fish!

what you need is a air pump what can withstand a large bubble bar ( i use a duel valve one that has bieng join together by a air tap and it works fine and very powerful) this will add more O2 into the water so the fish can breathe.
this is why your fish may be gasping for air.
if you cannot get your hands on a powerful enough air pump go to eny fish dealer and ask for oxygenating tablets from supa. these add O2 but you need to add more after 3 days but they are not expensive (about 50p) or go to wilkinsons (but there about £1)

hope this helps you out.

jimmy

 

[RYO]

ok now im realy realy confused(dont take much)
got back from lfs and all water perams are as said
cheers Jimmy have tryed the tabs just waiting to see what happens now

the air pump im using now powerfull enough for a tank twice the size so ill keep that in at mo(i hate bubbles, they wreck my plants )

 

[RYO]

Just an update,lost no fish over night (left air stone going all night) only the danio still looks a little pinkbut is swimming around fine,as are all others.
Still not sure what went on only thing that i can think of is the water company has been working on the main pipes in our area and the water pressure has gone through the roof ,so maybe somthing got in the water.