Gulping for air!

[the caretaker]

I recently added 4 new green severums to my 5ft x 2ft 18" tank and within minutes they were all at the top gulping madly for air I have done a 30% water change and cleaned the gravel which desperately needed doing and they are still doing it!
any help would be great.

I only have 8 fish 3 tinfoil barbs 2 @ 6" 1@3" and 4 Severums and 3@4" 1@2" and a 10" pleco

Thanks

 

[Ben]

whats the temp.?

whats your ammonia,nitrite,nitrate and ph?

all of those would help

DD

 

[the caretaker]

The temp 26.5 79.5 in old money
ammonia at the moment is 0.25
Nitrite0.1mg
I don't know what the PH is I don't have a test kit for it.
I think I have what is known as a tired- tank syndrome.
I am doing daily water changes and have added a lot more plant to the tank

 

[fufanu360]

before you get new fish you should always make sure your tank is in tip-top shape...


edit: do you have any source of oxagen, such as an airstone or bubble wall?

 

[Nuttygal! :0)]

You didn't add the fish when the lights were off did you? Also, do you have real plants? Because real plants give out oxygen during the day but at night they take the oxygen back in. I bought an air stone.

 

[fufanu360]

whats wrong with adding fish with the lights off? its acually a good thing because then there is less stress on the fish

 

[WILDER]

Your tank hasn't cycled so they will be stressed, do a water change, you might lose them if they are not very healthy fish.

 

[sylvia]

Read the first 3 links in my signature to learn more about cycling. You added too many fish at once to a tank that is not ready for them. Like Wilder said, do a water change again. You need to keep ammonia and nitrIte at 0.

 

[jflowers]

As sylvia said and also your filtration, is it moving your surface water? Do you have an air stone? You don't need an air stone if you filter is disrupting the surface and if it isn't, make it and get rid of the air stone. If its a planted tank air stones are not good. If its not the air stone away, it improves the flow and adds surface agitation.

Jon

 

[the caretaker]

I do have plant in the tank and I have just put in a Hagen 301 power head to help with the flow. The many water changes and the other bits that I have done have definately helped they are not gulping air any more. I will keep doing 10% water changes every other day for a while longer, and I test the ammonia and nitrite levels every morning. Thanks people.
P.S. Sylvia I am embarrased to say that it's not a new tank it's an old tank and I have not been maintaining it properly! I WILL FROM NOW ON! (scouts Honour) it already looks fantastic, I'll post a picture to show you. If I can work out how to do it.

 

[CFC]

The only reason the new fish started gulping is because of the amonia and nitrite levels, the fish already in the tank will have become adjusted to the pollution in the tank over time and may not have shown any symptoms but to the new fish it would have been quite a shock.
To put it into easy to understand terms imagine being in a busy bar where people are smoking, having spent many hours there you would hardly notice the smoke around you and would carry on drinking and chatting as normal. Then imagine walking into that same bar but near the end of the night when the room is filled with smoke, it hits your lungs like a sledghammer and starts you coughing almost instantly from the polluted atmosphere.

Keep up with the water changes and test your water regularly until you are sure that the levels are being maintained at 0 and your fish will be fine.