meg1220

While I was watching my fish today I noticed that one of them seems to be "gulping" all the time- opening and closing its mouth rapidly, constantly. The other fish don't do this. It is not sitting at the surface gulping air, it is swimming around otherwise normally. This fish, however, has never seemed as brightly colored as the other five. My water temp. is currently 77(f). Just did a water change Friday and levels are ammonia 0, -ites 0, -ates about 5. Any ideas?

CHoffman

hmmm...poor guy..It could just be that he hasn't been healthy all along. Do you have a airstone or anything in the tank??..Is there allot of surface agitation?

cerianthus

How about pH? any pics?

meg1220

I hope this works- I don't know if I've posted this picture correctly. But, if I did, it's the fish on the very top. Doesn't look much different from the rest, but you can see it's colors look a bit faded. It just never brightened up like the rest.
I haven't actually tested the pH in a bit, but it was staying at around 6.8 when I was testing that regularly. I've got 2 pieces of driftwood in the tank to keep pH low.

And, no, no airstone. I've got quite a few plants in there, so I thought they would be enough for oxygen and that an airstone would just cause the CO2 to escape. Do you think an airstone would help?

Attached Images

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Steve420

How long have they been in your tank and how did you introduce them (meaning did you just float them for a little while or did you try the drip method?)

My understanding (from personal experience and talking with other Fish peeps) is that Neons are super sensative to water differences and can be hard to keep.

I had a really really bad experience just floating them and letting them loose. But had a GOOD experience when using the drip method.

Hope your little guy feels better!

Steve

meg1220

I got them at the end of January. I acclimated them for about an hour... not sure I did the "drip" method, but I floated the bag, and every 10-15 mins I added a little bit of new tank water. At first, when I did water changes, I was really paranoid about upsetting them with changes in the water, so I'd add the new water in a similar way- a little bit every few minutes over a period of about an hour. I haven't been doing that lately, though.

agabr123

your neon may have just been sick from the start. unfortunately they are very sensitive little fish, from the picture he appears fairly healthy. it may be worth it to add an air stone anyways if you have one as he may just need more O2 if he's not quite as healthy as the others.

meg1220

Thanks for the replies. I will try the airstone today after work. I've been making a lot of changes to the tank, too (adding plants, etc.), so maybe s/he's a bit more stressed out. I think I'll give them a break for a bit.