Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: Triggzy on July 18, 2016, 07:20:48 PM
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hey
My cycle has finished xD yay!
So my cycle finished Thursday last week so Saturday i put 6 angels and 2 plecs in the tank and iv run into a few concerns.
The angels keep going to the surface and look to be eating/gasping at the very top. Its never all 6 at once tho and appears to be at random times and with random fish. Right now there are 2 angels at the top gasping and 4 at the middle/bottom completely fine. it never happens to just these two tho its completely random which fish are at the top.
I have a 1000 L/h filter with a spray bar positioned with 50% out of the water and 50% in pointed at the surface. I can see that there is surface agitation on at least 50% of the surface the other 50% has movement but looks more like its just flowing/moving slowly.
What iv checked:
Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
PH is stable
Checked there gills, some fishes gills are moving faster then others. (not sure what im looking at really)
some videos:
Fish at the surface
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Fish at the bottom
&feature=youtu.be
So im thinking its that there isn't enough oxygen in the water but i have no idea what to buy. Do i need an airstone a wavemaker or just a pump at the surface? Also if it is just oxygen can my fish cope with it for at least another week? I get paid next week and don't have much money right now.
Any advice would be appreciated greatly
Alex.
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In the video of the fish at the surface, is that the end that is moving more slowly? It does look to be slow movement, if the rest of the tank is like that I would try to adjust the spray bar so the whole surface is moving.
Another contributing factor is the weather (if you are in the UK). Warmer water can hold less oxygen than cooler water. Certainly for the duration of this hot weather, it is worth trying to adjust the spraybar.
But you've only had the fish a couple of days and it's only ever a couple of fish at the surface. And since it's random which two are at the surface, that suggests that there is nothing wrong with just two of the fish. They are probably just adjusting to their new environment, especially if the shop's tank water is different from yours.
I would give it a few days yet, and see if you can increase surface movement even if that's just till the weather returns to the usual cold and damp.
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Yes in the video thats the 50% moving slowly, iv tried moving the spraybar to multiple angles, its not very powerful. I wonder if the filter is under performing. The angels are also fighting a little they chase each other for a split second then stop. Wondering if this is normal behaviour.
Ill give it a few days and see if there is any change.
Thanks.
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The angels are behaving normally. They are cichlids and the males will be vying to see which is 'top fish'. The problem will arise if a male and a female decide to pair up and spawn. They could well attack the other four. If none of them pair up, you will see just the usual cichlid bickering.
You could try removing the spray bar and see if the resulting jet circulates the water better. If it doesn't, your choices are a powerhead (a bit like a filter pump without the filter attached) or an air pump and air stone. Or even a second filter if you think the current one isn't quite up to it.
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I think im going to go with the power head from what i have looked into its less noisy with better surface agitation Not sure what L/H i should be getting, iv read that angels don't like much water movement. If the power head is pointed just to the surface will it affect the water movement of the whole tank or just the surface alone?
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You could go for a power head with an added venturi, like this (http://filterpro.co.uk/water-pumps-7-c.asp). This would give more movement plus added air.
The pump in action can be viewed in this video, from about 8:30 onwards... and it's got Angel Fish in it! What's not to like, eh? :))