[skyleranne]

I have a 55 gallon tank that has been running for a little over a year now and Have about 12 fish in it, all cichlids. I was doing my weekend cleaning and adding two new powerhead and ugj's and forgot to plug my air pump back in and a couple of hours later all my fish were either up top like they were gulping for air or swimming around and gasping for air. I pluged it back in a within hours they returned normal. None of my other tanks has this problem and don't have any air stones or extra air pumpint into it, so what could cause this???? Is this normal for Cichlids or are they just used to have extra air being pumped in????

 

[Fogelhund]

If the fish were at the surface, there wasn't enough oxygen in the tank for them. Depending on which fish you have, and the water parameters, it might not be unexpected for the fish to behave as they do. What is your water change regimen?

 

[steveangela1]

Do you test your water frequently? And what test kit do you use? I use an api, if your nitrites and ammonia were above -0- then it could have been the problem, also a higher temp (higher than 80 can cause lower o2 levels in the water (the higher the temp the lower the dissolved o2 in the water).
I have 16 cichlids in a 55g tank, I have an ehiem canister filter, biowheel (penguin) filters, and I still use a small bubble wand, I keep my water temp at about 77, my nitrites are 0, ammonia at 0... I do water change day on wed, and vacc day on sat (this week is backwards because I was sick this weekend and so was my children so it will be opp for now on) However my 6 tanks get 2 waterchanges and one vacc a week. W/ an overstocked cichlid tank I would reccomend a heavy waterchange regimin. I have a low fish loss and very healthy happy fish w/ this.

 

[LexBubble]

I don't know your water change regimen but I think you need to change your water more often. You should change at least 10% every week and do a major water change once a year. That's what I do and I have never had a problem in 5 years keeping cichlids

 

[steveangela1]

Oh I guess I should ad I never take out less than 20 percent at a time w/ my water changes... my 1st response when somethings going on in a tank is waterchange....

 

[Linka]

I run some powerheads in my tank for more oxygen. From what i know malawi ciklids need more oxygen in theyre wather than many other fishes.

Linka

 

[skyleranne]

Sorry it has taken me a week to respond, I do a weekly water change and do about 20-25% water change. All my levels are the same, Nitrites at 0 Amonia at 0. I run a fluval 305 and change the water every two weeks and clean all the sand out of it. I was keeping my temps at 82 so that could be why. This is all making since to me know and thanks for all the feed back you all have been helpful.