ALL my fish at the top of the water....vertical! Help!

[Erk]

All I did yesterday was a water change, and I tried to turn the temp down a lil bit, as I was hoping to save one of the new rams lives, in the process, but she is a gonner, and I left the temp down to were it is (29C) and this morning....alll the fish are at the top of the surface vertical, like they cant breathe or something??? :cry:

Is it time to replace my airstone? The pump running the airstone is not the size of my tank, actually its pretty small for my tank, but I never had a problem in the past?

Thanks a lot for your advice with this
Eric

[j.c fishfan]

Up your airation ASAP that may help.

What are your parameters?As it could be the ammonia,nitrite,nitrate or PH that is affecting them.

Have you put any new fish/plants or ornaments in the tank lately?

What is your filtration?

Are their any abnormalties on the fish?fungus etc.

Do you spray and deodorant around the tank?

HTH

Jamie :D

[Erk]

I have to get out to the LFS to replace the airstone, and they arent open yet :(

Im checking my parameters now...dont have a nitrite kit....my bother is borrowing it right now, but i will check everything else

I added 3 new rams on thursday, and lost one of them so far yesterday, it was showing the same behavior as all my other fish are now

My filtration is the rena xp3, as listed in my signature

Nothing looks odd to me on the fish, just that they are at the top of the tank like this :(

I dont spray anything near the tank...no cleaning products, or deoderants of any kind, and I def. havent gotten around to cleaning since monday night

Thanks for your help j.c fishfan
Eric

[Merrilyn]

Oh dear Eric, I'm so sorry to hear that.

We never add new fish to an established discus tank unless we quarantine them in a separate tank for at least three or four weeks. That way, if they are carrying some problem, they don't get a chance to pass it on to your other fish.

Now a couple of things you can do. First do an immediate water change of at least 50% of the tank volume, and turn your air pump up flat out. If it's not pushing out enough air, then give your airstone a scrub to remove any gunk that may be blocking the holes. You need lots of fine bubbles for the best circulation.

Next, add one heap teaspoon of rock salt, or plain cooking salt to your tank. It will make it easier for the fish to breathe, and just keep an eye on them for any further developments, especially those new rams.

[j.c fishfan]

No problems Eric

Merrilyn,You took the words straight out of my mouth :D

Next time quarantine your rams buddy it will save all this hassle (if this is the cause)

Maybe add another air pump(if possible) or add another filter or powerhead if possible.

HTH

Jamie :D

[fish_r]

i cant add any other suggestions Erk other than what the others have said, but i have my fingers crossed for u that every thing turns out ok :( sorry to hear it m8...

[Erk]

Thanks Merrilyn, I should have quarantined these guys, but I would have had to clean up the quarantine tank....its been outta commission, with no fish in for quite a few weeks, and the LFS said they had these rams for a while, and seemed fine, so I thought when I lost one of the rams yesterday, it was just due to them not liking such higher water temps

I will get on another water change...just did that one yesterday, and clean off the airstone, I should get a new air pump also, like I said, it is a bit small for the tank...I had the spray bar pointed up and back towards the back wall of the tank, and I have changed that, to straight up also

I didnt have great luck finding plain salt in my adventures last time I went looking for it, but I will try to look for some more today

Thanks again

Water parameters currently are:

pH=7.0 like normal
ammonia=0
no nitrite kit right now :(
nitrate=15

[j.c fishfan]

Try lifting your spraybar above the current water level as this will create excellent surface agitation!

Do a water change to bring your nitrate down as its getting into the dangerous levels!

HTH

Jamie :D

[fish_r]

i just had a thought Erk, i had a similar problem a few mths ago when i used the wrong worming solution which had glucose in it "sugar" and u run a yeast sugar mix Co2 system. u didnt by any chance have any of ur solution from ur Co2 unit enter ur tank some how did u ?
i have read of this happening b4.
just a thought m8.

[Erk]

I cleaned the airstone, and I will get a better air pump today

What is this cooking salt Im looking for?

I hooked up a maxi jet powerhead for now, and it seems better atm

I havent used anything out of the normal, except praziPRO, and the bottle doesnt say glucose....but then again, it doesnt say much of anything on it

I will lift the spary up outta the water a lil bit to help things as well....I thought nitrates around 10-20 were ok for discus? dunno why they are that high, seeing as tho I did about 45% water change yesterday, and they are 5 coming out of the RO :?

Thanks again

[Erk]

Thanks fish_r, I dont think any of that happened in there, but I do run that fermented system 24/7 but it hasnt changed my pH and the co2 indicator never seems to change from blue greenish, so i didnt think this was gonna create any problems!

[Erk]

I cleaned the airstone, lifted half the spray bar up to the top of the water, almost out of the water, and hooked up the maxi jet power head. Seems like things are getting better now, and I will have to get a better airpump

Im running more RO water, and then I need to heat it, so I prolly wont get to a water change until later today

Thanks everyone for your help....I hope these changes help to get me through until I get out to the LFS for some more supplies

[the german]

you get more oxygen thru surface movement so when you just put the airstone off and let the open line blow all pressure in the tank it really should help,i use no airstones at all,just the outlet of the pump close to the surface,gives me plenty.

but eric,just tell me why you dont quarantine them,you was so good with Q and discus before and now you risk all for some cheap blue rams :?

[Merrilyn]

Eric, you may know the salt as kosher salt.

It's really just unrefined salt. The stuff called table salt has fillers in it, to make it flow smoothly, that's why we use the plain stuff for aquariums.

How are they looking now Eric. Is there any change now that you have more water circulation?

[Erk]

They all seem back to normal Merrilyn.....the discus arent out and about yet, but during all this fun (7am for me) there was food on the bottom, but now its gone, nobody died, nobody is at the top of the water


I know german, that was quite the dumb move! :( :(

so when you just put the airstone off and let the open line blow all pressure in the tank it really should help,i use no airstones at all,just the outlet of the pump close to the surface,gives me plenty

Can you explain that for me a lil more?

Thanks everyone for your help, and I hope thats all it was, and the rams didnt do anything bad for the tank :oops:
Eric

[Erk]

Did a water change, will have to keep an eye out for kosher salt

Lifted the spray bar end up, hooked up a powerheard which will be on 24/7 and I hooked up a bubble wand to an airpump that is made for my size tank, and this will only be on when the lights are off

I will keep an eye on things to see how they go....things seem much better now, I have to keep an eye on the discus, they seem to be doing some odd shaking things :? Hope I didnt mess them up too bad

Thanks everyone for your help :D
Eric

[the german]

so when you just put the airstone off and let the open line blow all pressure in the tank it really should help,i use no airstones at all,just the outlet of the pump close to the surface,gives me plenty[/url]

Can you explain that for me a lil more?


Eric

the outlet of the pump is very close to the surface,so that the surface has a lot of movement,it can get a bit noisy,than i put it a bit lower.
with any airstone you do the same,make surface movement,the only way to get oxygen in your tank.
but i dont know if this way is good for everyone,you should have a airstone in as well,safety first,but when it dont work one day just move the outlet of your filter to the surface.


michael

[Erk]

Thanks german, I understand you now....I dont understand how one day everythings fine, and then the next, I dont have enough circulation, but I def. should now

Thanks for explaining that better to me, I will see how things go now :) Eric

[fish_r]

glad to hear all ur fish are ok again Erk, pretty strange ?
with ut planted tank if u put ur outlet nozzle to the top causing turbulence it will disipate all ur Co2 so keep that in mind, but ur fish are more important than ur plants too
imo. i would be running the air wand 24 hrs for a few days after the problem u had wich will also get rid of most of ur co2 aswell but better to be safe than sorry.
good luck m8 :)

[Erk]

Ok fish_r.....that is a good idea, I have the powerhead at the end of spray bar, in the back left corner, so the whole tank should cycle from back to front, with the intake tube in the back right corner much better then before, cause my spray bar only went about 3/4 the way towards the other side of the tank. I think I like this better......I just redid the fermented co2 tonight, so that isnt even actually running yet, so I will let it run 24/7 for a few days, just to make sure they are completely back to normal....they seem rather skittish again, and didnt really eat from my hand a lil bit ago :(

Thanks for the tip :wink:
Eric

[j.c fishfan]

Glad to hear that your fish are ok buddy!!

Hope everything goes smoothly from now on

Jamie :D

[Erk]

Thanks Jaime :D So do I! :D

That was scarry :oops:

Thanks again!
Eric

[scott bowler]

Eric good to see things are getting back to normal mate it isa bit scarry but all is good so well done

[Erk]

Thanks scott.....I think things should be looking up now, I just dont understand how one day everything is fine, and everyone seems happy, then the next, I dont have enough circulation or o2 in the tank :?

Anyways, I just hope I never have to see that again :oops:

Thanks,
Eric

[discus lover01]

good to see mate that u saved the fish remember the big word and have the tank always setup Quarrantine as we have all lost good fish or made the mistake of adding fish into the tank at 1 point or another and wham we either get a breakout of something and the discus suffer but very glad to see you have got it under control.
Never trust a shop when they say the fish is healthy and been there a while LOL it's like the car jacker saying trust me i am only borrowing it i will return it.
hahahahahahaha

[Erk]

Thanks discus lover01 :D I def. learned a lesson on that one and especially learned that surface agitation is very important as well!

Im glad things turned around, and all seems back to normal, I hope I never see that again! :D



it's like the car jacker saying trust me i am only borrowing it i will return it.

Thats fantastic! hahaa :lol:

[j.c fishfan]

No problems mate great to hear everything is well.

Jamie :D