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Fish Are Swimming With Nose To Surface (Advice Needed)

Discussion in 'Fish Diseases & Cures' started by Anonymous, Aug 13, 2008.

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  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Thread Starter Guest

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    Help, my fish are acting weird
    My fish, basically all of them are swimming with their nose to the surface. I have checked all the water parameters and they are all fine except that my water is very hard. Could this be causing them to swim in this manner. I changed the water yesterday and did everything I normally do. Could it be that there isnt enough oxygen in the tank? Its my planted tank, but there are no airstones in there because I figured the plants would be shooting out oxygen.
     
    Anonymous, Aug 13, 2008
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  2. noshow discus

    noshow discus New Member

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    these new fish or have you had them for awhile meaning you have done W/C with them before?
    Gh and Kh normal?
    an airstone wouldnt hurt.
     
    noshow discus, Aug 13, 2008
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  3. caronsd

    caronsd New Member

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    What kind of fish are they? Mine did that when I transfered tanks, but they were back to normal just a day later.
     
    caronsd, Aug 13, 2008
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  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Thread Starter Guest

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    This was the first water change for all the fish acting weird, the fish are angels, neons, and a loach.

    Im not sure what Gh and Kh are but I tested ammonia, nitrites, and pH with my water test kit, and then I also have used a 5 in 1 test strip and the only thing that wasnt zero on that was the water hardness and alkalinity (I think).
     
    Anonymous, Aug 13, 2008
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  5. eeyipes

    eeyipes New Member

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    Revenge of the cable box!

    But seriously, does your water always measure "very hard" according to the strips, or is this a change from the norm?

    I have the same strips, for me hardness is usually GH 75 ppm, alkalinity KH 120 ppm.
     
    eeyipes, Aug 13, 2008
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  6. crazhrse

    crazhrse New Member

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    not saying it is your problem but i had some fish like that once and it was from poor water circulation from what i was told so i bought a small powerhead and put in it and the next day everything was good , also have you changed their diet recently or done ANYTHING different to the tank
     
    crazhrse, Aug 13, 2008
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  7. Anthony

    Anthony Active Member

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    Was the water temp the same ?
    Is there enough surface aggregation ? I assume there is since they were fine before the water change.
     
    Anthony, Aug 13, 2008
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  8. Dox13

    Dox13 Member

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    I hope they make it okay.
     
    Dox13, Aug 13, 2008
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  9. eeyipes

    eeyipes New Member

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    Also, there's nothing dead hiding in the corner, right? Just had to ask ... only because one of my guppies got caught in the filter today, and I only realized it because the rest were acting weird. They weren't hanging at the surface, though, just listless.
     
    eeyipes, Aug 13, 2008
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  10. Anonymous

    Anonymous Thread Starter Guest

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    I removed an old filter I was using to est bacteria in my new filter, but that was like 3 or 4 days ago. Yesterday I switched back from the water polisher filter wheel to the activated carbon filter and changed the water. I have switched the filter before, but it was my first water change on this tank.

    My water is and has always been very hard in three different houses.
     
    Anonymous, Aug 13, 2008
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  11. Anonymous

    Anonymous Thread Starter Guest

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    There is nothing dead that I can see and all are accounted for, I was thinking today that the surface looked very still in there Anthony. I am going to change the way the filter is pumping and see if that helps.
     
    Anonymous, Aug 13, 2008
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  12. Anthony

    Anthony Active Member

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    You said your ammonia was at 0 correct ?

    Was this carbon new ? Carbon isn't suggested for tanks anymore unless you use it for a day or so to remove meds from the tank. It's thought that old carbon can leach things back into the water and cause problems.

    Removing the filter wheel, and other filter may have removed too many of the bacterial colonies that kept the ammonia in check.

    Okay... It's possible that they're lacking oxygen.
     
    Anthony, Aug 13, 2008
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  13. eeyipes

    eeyipes New Member

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    You might want to do another water change and get a bubbler going in there for awhile if you have one.
     
    eeyipes, Aug 13, 2008
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  14. Anonymous

    Anonymous Thread Starter Guest

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    Your not supposed to use acivated carbon anymore? I use it in all of my tanks on an everyday basis? It even came with the filter. Yeah, the ammonia is 0. I use the filter wheel as a polisher, thats what the directions said it was for in my magnum 250, and it says to use the carbon box for daily use. And im going to move the filter to the very middle of the tank, and throw an air stone in there for a bit.
     
    Anonymous, Aug 13, 2008
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  15. Anthony

    Anthony Active Member

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    Yeah, most filters still come with carbon still.
     
    Anthony, Aug 13, 2008
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  16. eeyipes

    eeyipes New Member

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    Is this wheel like a biowheel? Then yes, it would house loads of good bacteria, and if you removed it, well, ooops!
     
    eeyipes, Aug 13, 2008
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  17. Anthony

    Anthony Active Member

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    Yeah, it should be a bio wheel, not a water polisher.
    The water polisher part of the Magnum filters looks like the biowheel but it goes in the filter itself. It's similar looking to some pool filters.
    [​IMG]
     
    Anthony, Aug 13, 2008
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  18. Anonymous

    Anonymous Thread Starter Guest

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    The magnum comes with two filters, one a water polisher that is simlar to a biowheel but goes into the tank, and another that is an everyday filter that holds whatever you put inside of it, I chose activated carbon because it came with the filter, and dont know what else one would use, should I leave the wheel in permanently?

    And, thats not what I am talking about, thats a bio wheel attachment, there is a water poliser that comes with the filter. If you were to remove that biowheel turn it sideways and insert it into the main unit of the filter thats what im talking about.
     
    Anonymous, Aug 13, 2008
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  19. Anthony

    Anthony Active Member

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    Okay yeah, that's your problem then. You removed that water polisher filter that had ALL the bacteria on it.
     
    Anthony, Aug 13, 2008
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  20. Anonymous

    Anonymous Thread Starter Guest

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    Re: Help, my fish are acting weird

    I only used it for 3 hours though? and kept the other filter wet. I switched back to the polisher, and threw in an air stone. Now my filter output is like zero. But hey there are no fish at the top.
     
    Anonymous, Aug 13, 2008
    #20
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