# Help! Gasping Fish...



## Carlotta (Mar 23, 2011)

Hi, I'm hoping that someone can offer me some advice. Sorry if this post is a little lengthy but I want to give as much info as I can.

Basically I've 'inherited' an aquarium from my dad that he's had for years. It was in quite a state and I've been doing some reading up the last few days. He'd been doing most things wrong (No regular water changes, maybe a 95% water change once every couple of years using untreated tapwater (no de-chlorinator), he would always just top up the tank with tap water when water evaporated, he always washed the filter sponge out in the sink etc). There was a major algae problem, this thick reddish black slime algae was covering everything. Somehow, despite all this the fish have survived and have seemed fine. There are a couple of tinfoil barbs, some angelfish, a red tailed shark and a couple of what look like some kind of small catfish/suckerfish of some type (Sorry, I'm not sure exactly what they are!)

So, the last couple of days this is what I have done - 
Yesterday I took out the fake plants and half of the rocks/ornaments, I bought a gravel vac and I did a 20% water change using de-chlorinator, I scraped the glass inside and I also cleaned out the filter sponge in water that I had removed from the tank and put new carbon in it. I tried to clean the fake plants in a 20-1 bleach solution but they were beyond saving due to the massive algae build-up so I binned them and bought some new plants and a new ornament for the smaller fish to hide in but didn't put them in yet. The fish seemed a lot happier last night after me doing all this, they fed as normal and no unusual behaviour.

Today I did another water change with the gravel vac to get some more of the nasty debris that had built up in the gravel (It was incredibly mucky before I started yesterday and I didn't want to change too much water in one go on the first day). I removed the rest of the dirty rocks and have been scrubbing them today in a bleach solution (They have been soaked in plain water for several hours, rinsed thoroughly, dried in the sun and are now soaking again in de-chlorinated water - I didn't want to risk poisoning the fish by putting them back in too soon so I haven't replaced them yet). I rinsed the new fake plants and the new hidey-hole ornament in tap water and then soaked them in de-chlorinated water a while before placing them in the tank. The fish seemed happy, water was a lot clearer and they fed as usual. I also gave them some bloodworms which they eagerly ate. The temperature is the same as it always has been, about 76 degrees, filter seems to be working fine.

However, the last few hours the fish have been at the surface of the tank gasping for air. The tester strips that we had seem to have disappeared so I can't test the water for nitrates, nitrites or ammonia right now as it's nearly midnight where I am. Is there anything I can do to help them? Will the fish be okay overnight until I can get the water tested and get to the aquatic shop? Have I done something wrong or done too much in one go? I'm wondering if I've somehow upset the balance by removing all the filthy rocks and plants. I've Googled and everything I've read seems to say that the fish are struggling for oxygen, I'm not quite sure what I can do to help them tonight 

Sorry for the long post! Any advice would be much appreciated


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## smurfette1175 (Dec 17, 2010)

I am no expert but since you have no test strips, try lowering the water level in the tank by about half an inch to an inch so the filters splash more or aim the filter outlet towards the surface so it will do a faster exchange of gases. You could have lost some of your good bacteria or have caused a shift in the ph with the water changes. Don't change any water until you get a test kit to see what is going on. If you can afford it invest in the liquid test kits such as API as they are much more accurate than the strips.


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