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celestialpoet

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Hey everyone. I was curious. Why do my fish come to the surface and move their lips? Are they drinking water or are they doing something else?? Its very weird . I thought the fish intake water through their gills.
 
I though they came to the surface to take in air.

I am new to this so best get it verified by someone with a little mroe experience. :)
 
The fish take in water when they're under the surface. they only go to the top for food or for air. They might be sick, like stated before, or the temp is too high and there isn't enough circulation.

Agitate the surface more with bubble bars and stones and do more water changes. Lower the temp a bit, as well.
 
Thanks for helping me, so i guess they arent drinking water..Maybe i do have the temps to high. I have the temps at 82 on one tank and 84 on the other. Those tanks includes balloon mollies and one very prego platy.Are those temps ok. I heard that i should leave them high.. :thumbs:
 
Way too high, IMO.

It should be below 78. If it's too high, they breed to quickly and get weaker and die faster because of it.

The lower the temp, the more O2 the tank can hold. Water holds the most O2 at 39, by the way. :D
 
water shouldnt be thatwarm. the farthest i had mine was arond 82-83 and that was when i was powerfeeding my cichlids for a while. i also think its out of air. ive had the same problem
 
last nite all my fish were gasping for air.even my bristle noses. I cheked my power filters air flow and there was baerly any. so i took the silencer off and (its still the same sound :D ) switched the light off for a few hours and then wen i switched it back on everything was normal again....so something could be blocking the air flow.
 
You guys may be on the right track, but i have 4 mollies and unlike regular fish, mollies have to go to the top to breathe air. They can stay under water for a while but thats what they do to breathe, from the surface.

HTH :)
 
Since no one else mentioned this - I think I will. :p If it is just your mollies displaying this behavior, I really don't think it is a problem. Livebearers like to "blow bubbles" at the surface sometimes... someone told me what it's called.. hmm... maybe burbling? (Or something of the sort.) Anyways, if they aren't gasping and don't look in distress, that's probably what it is. My platies do it all the time - they quite enjoy themselves. :p
 
yeh but they wernt blowing bubbles......i still think they needed more air or it got toooo hot :kana:
 
:D Ok well i lowered my Temps and havent noticed them doing it. Hmmm . It kinda looks liek they are skimmy the surface. Moving their lips. Im sure its nothing to worry about. Off the subject. I was sooo sad one of my 2 month old baby was sucked into the filter. Then i was down to two fry. Then the next I became soo happy when i looked in my community tank. There was one baby fry Laying onto of my turtle dock. I keep it the water shallow on it so that way they have a place to hide as well as the plants..lol I helped escape from all those bad fish in the tank who were gonna eat em. I quickly netted it. Came back and notice one more.. :kana: I filled my transporter(I like to call it) and snatched that one up. I put them in the nursery. Came back to look for more fry and sure enough . i foudn two more.. I looked very silly running back and forth from my bedroom to the living room..lol. Oh well so now im happy. i have four 2 day old fry. one, 1 week old fry and I just relased the 2 month old fry into the maternity tank. I let him go along with the one who got sucked up to fend for themselves with the moms, before they go to the community tank.
 
Burbling huh?

Well, I've read many books on all types of libebearers and livebearers in general. it's never come up. My platies and guppies don't exhibit this behavior, so maybe not all specimens do this. :dunno:
 
i live in california and we just recently had a big heat wave and my room gets the worst. my fish tank is usually 74-76 but its now at 84-86!!! should i try and change it? if so, how?

ps
my mollies do it too :hyper:
 

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