New Fish gulping at top of tank

[WILDER]

I don't know if this is the same type problem or not. I have 3 plecos in my tank and one of them keeps rushing to the surface and then going back to the bottom. it appears to be eating and otherwise acting normally. Any Ideas?

Please post test results in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph.

 

[clutterydrawer]

you'd need a swimming pool to house those three plecs! ...assuming they're commons, which of course they might not be.

 

[blue_ram]

I don't know if this is the same type problem or not. I have 3 plecos in my tank and one of them keeps rushing to the surface and then going back to the bottom. it appears to be eating and otherwise acting normally. Any Ideas?

Please post test results in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph.

And few other things such as:

• aquarium size
• complete list of inhabitants in the aquarium
• length of time the aquarium has been running
• frequency and amount of water change
• additives you add to the water

It's also nice to describe your cleaning habbit. Too many people tend to scrubb their aquarium clean and kill their bio filter in the process.

 

[blue_ram]

you'd need a swimming pool to house those three plecs! ...assuming they're commons, which of course they might not be.

Chances are, they are a common pleco, when no adjective precedes 'pleco'. Who can refuse a tiny 1.5" algae eater at the lfs? A friend of mine had to move his 6 year old common plecos to his father's koi pond, because his 55g wasn't big enough for his 14" plecos. It's a good thing he lives in Florida.

 

[nomaddan]

I know I am going to get reamed for this but you have to trust me that I am planning ahead. I have 4 Red Belly Pirahna(1"-2"), Three common Pleco(1.5") and 1 Red Clawed Crab(1"). I know my ammonia is high because my fish showed up all at one instead of staggering them like I planned. The tank has only been up for about 3 weeks. After a week i added the plecos and a few days later I ordered the Pirahna expecting them to take almost two weeks to be shipped because of the place I orderd from said they only ship on Thursday, I ordered on a Tuesday thinking that Paypal wouldn't clear for ...blah blah blah, really not important. So here I am with fish that look like they are doing ok except the one pleco. I have a feeling that the ammonia is my problem.

Did I miss anything?

 

[benz_020]

my cichlids do that when i have to replace most of the water in the tank,
and my placo is doing that right now because he is in a new tank,
i wouldnt think your ammonia would be to high alredy, but i dont know much.

 

[Joviella]

.nomaddan.......If you get a new tank and put lots of potentially large fish in all at once.....you will have ammonia problems and nitrite problems and fish deaths.
Can you get your lfs to look after your fish while your tank cycles?
What size is your tank??

 

[CFC]

Just to add in the case of the original over stocked tank

Tank size: 26 UK Gallons

2 Pink gourami
1 Blue Gourami
3 Large Plecostomus
1 tiny pleco!
1 Corydoras (the other one didn't make it (
2 Butterfly Cichlid
1 Red Tailed Black Shark
4 Ruby Barbs
9 Black neon Tetra
6 Neon Tetra
6 Glowlight Tetra
6 Harlequin (tetra?)
6 Zebra Danios
1 Balloon Molly
4 hatchet fish
About 20 guppies (mostly babies)

That simply adding more filtration is not always the answer, water can only hold a measured ammount of oxygen no matter how much aeration and filtration is supplied and in fact adding more filtration will just lower the oxygen more as the aerobic bacteria consume more oxygen to keep up with converting the ammonia and nitrite. Really the only answer to tanks that are grossly over stocked is to either return fish or buy a bigger tank.

 

[nomaddan]

I'm not worried about tank space right now.

This is what I have done so far

The lfs is not an option I only have a Chain store around me

I have added and air pump with a stone to help get more O2 in the tank

Cut back on my feeding to cut down on the waste

Added three plants

and am doing 20 - 30% water changes

I know I went about this the wrong way, kind of a mix btween ignorance and bad timing. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do. Thanks for all the great tips already

 

[nomaddan]

I have good news! I added the air stone and the plec isn't gulping any more. My ammonia is dropping as well. Hopefully that means everything is going in the right direction. thanks for all of the advice, it really was helpful!