Fish are acting very weird (2 of them might be dying)

[nuchumYussel]

Hi,

I have a 20 gallon freshwater tank. In this tank i have the following:

4 Tiger Barbs
4 Black Widdow Tetra
1 Diamond Scale Tetra
2 Serpae Tetra
1 Snakeskin Gourami
1 Red-Tail Black Shark
1 5-6 inch Common Pleco (the pleco is about to be given away to a
friend).

The tank is about a year old, fully cycled. About a month and a half
ago, I had a very large rise in phosfates. A freind of mine
reccomended I put in a"phos-zorb" filter medium bag. He said that I
should take out the filter pad, and insert the phos-zorb where the
filter would go. Earlier today while feeding, I noticed that 2 of the
Tiger Barbs were hovering at the top, and their mouths were going very
fast. I thought maybe there was insufficient amounts of airation in
the tank. SO i stuck in an airpumpm. Even with the airpump, they are
still gasping at the surface. Also, upon closer inspection, it looks
as though these two fish have a couple ich spots on them :( I had some
ich medicine left over from an ich spell i had about 9 months ago, so
i added the recommended dose. I just dont understand what I am doing
wrong. My Ph is at 6.7, my ammonia is at 0, my nitrites are also at 0.
AND I have an air pum going, in addition to the filter. Can someone
please help me? Thanx for reading

Have a good day!
Evan

[LoveFish]

Welcome to the hobby. Fresh water fish are very temperamental and any
change in their environment can spell trouble. It sounds like you may be
over feeding. Are you using any plant fertilizers? Did you check your tap
for phosphates?

"nuchumYussel" > wrote in message
m...
> Hi,
>
> I have a 20 gallon freshwater tank. In this tank i have the following:
>
> 4 Tiger Barbs
> 4 Black Widdow Tetra
> 1 Diamond Scale Tetra
> 2 Serpae Tetra
> 1 Snakeskin Gourami
> 1 Red-Tail Black Shark
> 1 5-6 inch Common Pleco (the pleco is about to be given away to a
> friend).
>
> The tank is about a year old, fully cycled. About a month and a half
> ago, I had a very large rise in phosfates. A freind of mine
> reccomended I put in a"phos-zorb" filter medium bag. He said that I
> should take out the filter pad, and insert the phos-zorb where the
> filter would go. Earlier today while feeding, I noticed that 2 of the
> Tiger Barbs were hovering at the top, and their mouths were going very
> fast. I thought maybe there was insufficient amounts of airation in
> the tank. SO i stuck in an airpumpm. Even with the airpump, they are
> still gasping at the surface. Also, upon closer inspection, it looks
> as though these two fish have a couple ich spots on them :( I had some
> ich medicine left over from an ich spell i had about 9 months ago, so
> i added the recommended dose. I just dont understand what I am doing
> wrong. My Ph is at 6.7, my ammonia is at 0, my nitrites are also at 0.
> AND I have an air pum going, in addition to the filter. Can someone
> please help me? Thanx for reading
>
> Have a good day!
> Evan

[Flash Wilson]

On 2 Apr 2004 16:34:23 -0800, nuchumYussel > wrote:
>The tank is about a year old, fully cycled. About a month and a half
>ago, I had a very large rise in phosfates. A freind of mine
>reccomended I put in a"phos-zorb" filter medium bag. He said that I

My experience of ammozorb and phoszorb is that they only last a few
days before needing "recharging" - you can't just put them in and
leave forever. Having said that I have a phosphate absorber sponge
(Juwel) which claims to last 6 weeks. So it might be worth checking
the packaging for intended length of use. Sounds like it's been 6
weeks already.

>should take out the filter pad, and insert the phos-zorb where the
>filter would go. Earlier today while feeding, I noticed that 2 of the
>Tiger Barbs were hovering at the top, and their mouths were going very
>fast. I thought maybe there was insufficient amounts of airation in
>the tank. SO i stuck in an airpumpm. Even with the airpump, they are
>still gasping at the surface. Also, upon closer inspection, it looks
>as though these two fish have a couple ich spots on them :( I had some
>ich medicine left over from an ich spell i had about 9 months ago, so
>i added the recommended dose. I just dont understand what I am doing

I guess you removed any carbon from the filter first :-)

>wrong. My Ph is at 6.7, my ammonia is at 0, my nitrites are also at 0.
>AND I have an air pum going, in addition to the filter. Can someone
>please help me? Thanx for reading

I would do a water change anyway, just in case there is something
nasty and undetectable. For example once I had fish acting sick
like yours while water params were great - it turned out there
were roadworks outside and fumes from boiling tar were getting
into the air. The fish were affected long before I could smell
it. Once I could smell it, I aerated the house, and the fish
perked up. So something unusual like that might be a suspect,
have you had any fumes near the tank lately?

How is the filter running, has it stopped recently or has anything
happened out of the ordinary? I know you said you have no ammonia
or nitrites, I'm just poking for more clues.

Sounds like you're doing your best with the airpump and the ich
treatment - let us know how it goes... hope it improves.

--
Flash Wilson
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