My Dragon Goby is surface gasping!?!?

[ShanTurk]

I recently had a 29G tank malfunction and go through the roof on all readings. It went cloudy and almost scummy overnight. I made the snap decision to put all my fish in bowls to try and save as many as I could. I threw out everything and bought a brand new 55G set up. Filled it, got my chemicles in and started to let it cycle. Here's the hard part.... I had to put all my fish back in before 24 hours had even passed. (Please don't all yell at me at once!) They we're dying in the temporary bowls. Good news is it's been 3 days and I haven't lost any fish. Bad news is that one of my dragon Gobys is surface gasping for hours at a time. All of my readings are within parameters except my ammonia which is hovering around 1. Only one of my Gobys is doing it though. The other one is not. So I'm really confused as to what it might be. Any thoughts??

 

[fluttermoth]

It will be the ammonia; you often find some fish more sensitive to it than others.

You need to keep testing and water changing, as you're now doing a fish in cycle. Do a large water change any time you see any trace of either ammonia or nitrite.

Do you still have the old filter media? If you can get that (or some mature media from another fishkeeper) into the filters of your new set up, that'll be the best thing you can do.

In the future, if this ever happens to you again, or anyone else reading the thread, do not take the fish out and put them in bowls; this is about the worst thing you can do. Fish in small volumes of water with no filtration leads to ammonia build ups very quickly. Very large, repeated, water changes in the main tank would have been better.

 

[ShanTurk]

I appreciate the help. I will got to my LFS first thing in search of some media as well as the water change. Transferring the fish out of the bad tank and into small bowls was an immediate reaction to the 8.0ppm ammonia reading I got when I tested the tank. Having to dump them into an un-cycled 55G tank was due to them starting to do what I call a "buoy" float. All of the fish seem fine now except for my one Goby. (My other Goby is well.) He's still frantic at the surface. This morning I found him limp and bent in half. Thinking he was dead, I went to check him and he darted off. Poor thing is exhausted. I just want to get him some comfort.

 

[fluttermoth]

Large water changes will be your best friend right now. As long as the new water is warmed and dechlorinated, your water changes can't be too big. I'd start by draining the tank right down, leaving just enough water for the fish to swim upright, before refilling.

 

[ShanTurk]

This is what my poor baby does after he gasps at the surface. Please tell me it's not too late?

 

[fluttermoth]

Mate, I'm sorry I can't say whether your fish is going to make it or not; there's no way of telling, but good clean water is the best medicine right now.

 

[ShanTurk]

Large water changes will be your best friend right now. As long as the new water is warmed and dechlorinated, your water changes can't be too big. I'd start by draining the tank right down, leaving just enough water for the fish to swim upright, before refilling.[/
-----I will go to the store right now and buy 50G of spring water to change with. I need to save this baby. Thank you for your help.

 

[fluttermoth]

Why can't you use your tap water? In most cases that's far better than spring or bottled water and, if your ammonia is at 1ppm, you need to do a water change now. Anything over 0.25ppm can be lethal to fish.

 

[ShanTurk]

I just tested my tap water and the ammonia level is around 1.5ppm. I just did the water change with a mixture of reverse osmosis and spring water. I have live plants from my old tank... should I add those to help the cycle? I will do a water test in a moment to check ammonia and post. Also with water changes is is best just to do weekly 50% changes with no products or bi-monthly/monthly changes with products??