Help . . . Fish are gasping for air

[Inkykit]

Hi

This is my first post, so please bare with me!

I have kept fish for many years
I have just inherited a tank including fish as follows

Juwel 260 vision aquarium
with
2 plecs (one large, one very small)
10 cichlids (ranging from inch to 4 inches)
2 tiger barbs
3 danios
1 silver shark (4-5 inches)
2 clown loaches

we moved the tank a week ago last saturday, kept 50% of the water
set up in the lounge (away from heating/windows etc)
for about 3 days all was fine, until i noticed the filter was not pumping the water about!!!!
So after a bit of wriggling about, i got it up and running - all fine for another few days
then next morning all fish gasping at the surface
did a 50% water change - all fine
next day again gasping at the surface
another 40% water change
all ok for 2 days
did a 20% water change just to make sure
next day the fish seemed lethargic
so i did a water test
which showed a slight rise in NO3
so another water change commenced 40%

all seemed to settle for a couple of days
then i accidently put in too much food!!
cleaned this out as best as i could

did a water test yesterday with Tetra 6 in 1 tab test - indicated between 50-100mg NO3
so did a 30% water change
this morning i did another 20% water change as the tab test showed 25-50mg NO3

now this is where it all goes wrong . . . . .

I had brought some plants prior to this and as the tank was settling I decided to ad them this afternoon

Now within 30 minutes of me adding them, all the fish are gasping at the surface again
but . . . ive done the tab test and it shows 10-25mg NO3 and 1mg NO2

everything else is well within normal range

Any ideas anyone? do i need to do another water change?

any advice would really be appreciated


Jan

[kissofdeath]

could be that there was something on the plants when u bought them, there was a thing a few months ago about people adding plants and it killing the fish.
also, what are the ciclids that you are keeping with the danios etc?

[Carylnz]

Fish gasping at the surface is usually an oxygen issue. I would be checking the filter is working correctly and adding an airstone or angle the spray bar (if you have one on the filter) to aim at the surface to break it up a bit and see if that makes a difference.
Are you adding anything to the water when you do a water change? I have heard some fish are sensitive to too much Prime (but not speaking from experience).
Another thought is that the council have recently flushed something through the water system and this is upsetting the fish but I would expect the reaction to be pretty instant, not after a couple of days.

[wilfy]

get a liquid test kit ,there more reliable,and acurate,

[Inkykit]

Hi

Thank you for your replies

We did a water change again last night (always use API Stress+)
All seemed to settle for a while, then 3 hours later, they were all gasping at the surface again!!!!!!

Now im no expert on this, but I was guessing the Nitrates could not go up that quick????

So, on your advice we directed to filter outlet nozzle upwards to break the surface of the water (we do have air bubble curtain as well)
within 10 minutes we could see the difference in the fish

By this morning, they were all back to normal, swimming about like nothing had happened

My question now is . . . . .

obviously its an oxygen issue and was easily solved by something quite simple, but . . . why?

[Inkykit]

oh and PS

I have no idea what Cichlids ive got . . . not my chosen breed, they came with the tank when I bought it secondhand

I have thought about rehoming them if I can find someone suitable as I find them quite destructive to the tank (Cichlids and plants just dont go together!!)

All i can tell you is most are plain orange (breed well) one is electric blue and black striped and one is light and dark blue striped