"scott" wrote in message
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On 7 Apr, 06:00, "swarvegorilla" wrote:
"scott" wrote in message

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On 4 Apr, 07:19, "swarvegorilla" wrote:
Lack of oxygen or even ammonia in the water will often get your fish
gasping
near the surface.
Myself I would hazzard a guess that your water contains too much
nitrite.
This enters the fish and poisons it.
I imagine the tank is about due for a nitrite spike.
Please google the phrase 'new tank syndrome' to see what your dealing
with
here.

"scott" wrote in message

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Hi,

My girlfriend is new to keeping fish and has recently brought a 35
litre tank. She set it all up except the fish and one week later
added 2 goldfish, maybe 1.5 inches in length. Then one week later
still she added the final two fish which are about 1inch. So she
thinks she has done everything correct.

The only thing she is not sure is right with the fish is that their
mouth constantly gulp. This is underwater and not at the surface.

They all swim around and look for food near the bottom (she uses
sinkng food) and in the evenings they seem to get more active and
swim
around mind tank and also near the surface sometimes. They seem
pretty active.

Their mouths open and shut all the time. From memory she doesnt
think
her friends fish mouths move so much and I have no idea myself.

The ones in the shop dont but then they are pumping oxygen into the
water all the time, whereas my girfriend just has about 4 plants and
a
pump to move the water around (plus the filter etc).

So is is normal for the fishes mouth to move this much.

Sorry if this is a really stupid question.

Regards,
Scott- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Hi,

The 'new tank syndrome' was a real helper. One question though.
Should I refrain from cleaning the sponge filter (in the tank water I
have removed while water changing) while the tank is cycling. Is it
best to just leave it alone. Same for gravel. Seems like everything
should be left alone except doing lots of water changes (and maybe
adding something to bring down the ammonia/nitrite levels if thats
possible, ie another chemical??)

TIA
Scott

DO you know someone with a setup aquarium?
If you do and there tank is healthy try and grab some filter material
from
their filter (sponge etc) and attach it too your filter (slot it in or
elastic band it to it)
This act of 'seeding' a tank with bacteria from another tank is by far
the
quickest way to cycle a tank.
I try grab a bit of water, bit of gravle (or sand) and a bit of filter
gunk.
That way ya get 3 types of organism to process your fish waste.

This first month is as hard as fishkeeping usually gets.
make it thru the cycle and its alll easy!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


Thanks to everyone who helped. We lost one fish out of four which was
a shame. Felt really bad that we had poisoned him. We tested the
water and it was high nitrite. We basically just kept doing water
changes and fed less often and sucked out all the old gunk (food and
waste) with a gravel suction pump thingy.

The other three fish seem much happier now. They still are gulping a
bit too much but it has slowed right down and sometimes they dont gulp
at all. Im assuming the tank is getting near the end of its cycle as
each day I can see them breathing easier.


We are going to just leave the tank with three fiosh in it as well
after reading posts from Ingrid that said we had too many fish.

Now we just gotta buy some more plants coz they dont stop eating
them!! But at least they seem happy.

Thanks again.
Scott



good to hear situation is under control!
many aquariums chokepoint during the cycle at the nitrite eaters.
they grow slower and are more delicate than ammonia eaters.
Bet you'll be glad when ya can ease off the water changes!