Experiencing A Big Problem I've Never Encountered Before

Everything has been doing great for about a year now, but today I lost my first fish in for over half a year. It was a little 2 inch rainbow fish I'd been taking car of since it's infancy. There are 2 other 3" rainbow fish that stay at the top of the tank sucking air like they can't get enough oxygen. All the other fish are behaving normally. I use nothing except pure water purchased at my local aquarium store. The weird thing is even after a 50% water change they were back to doing it within 24 hours. I have a canister filter with a UV filter. Since it's summer and the tank is by a window I turned the heater down a little b/c sometimes hot fish will stay at the surface. The only thing that's changed is I introduced 4 of these African dwarf frogs, purely aquatic and not more than 1.5" and a couple new plants, everything bought from a local aquarium store. I'm also using a new brand of frozen brine shrimp for the last 2 months without any issues. So yeah I'm out of ideas. If the fish community has any ideas it would be most welcome.

 

Everything has been doing great for about a year now, but today I lost my first fish in for over half a year. It was a little 2 inch rainbow fish I'd been taking car of since it's infancy. There are 2 other 3" rainbow fish that stay at the top of the tank sucking air like they can't get enough oxygen. All the other fish are behaving normally. I use nothing except pure water purchased at my local aquarium store. The weird thing is even after a 50% water change they were back to doing it within 24 hours. I have a canister filter with a UV filter. Since it's summer and the tank is by a window I turned the heater down a little b/c sometimes hot fish will stay at the surface. The only thing that's changed is I introduced 4 of these African dwarf frogs, purely aquatic and not more than 1.5" and a couple new plants, everything bought from a local aquarium store. I'm also using a new brand of frozen brine shrimp for the last 2 months without any issues. So yeah I'm out of ideas. If the fish community has any ideas it would be most welcome.

Do you think there's decent oxygen exchange at the surface of your water? Maybe try adding an air stone, or moving your filter out take so that it agitated the surface of your water more.

 

Do you think there's decent oxygen exchange at the surface of your water? Maybe try adding an air stone, or moving your filter out take so that it agitated the surface of your water more.

I adjusted the spray bar to skI'm the surface. The position of the spray bar is actually something I changed. I filled the tank up more so I wouldn't have to top it off quite as often, which put the spray bar under the water so there was no surface agitation, but I didn't think this would make a huge difference. But it fits the timeline of the death.

 

OK I'll do that now. That's a good thing to try. Thank you.

No problem, I'm a bit of a newbie so not entirely sure it will work but it's worth a try.

 

Everything has been doing great for about a year now, but today I lost my first fish in for over half a year. It was a little 2 inch rainbow fish I'd been taking car of since it's infancy. There are 2 other 3" rainbow fish that stay at the top of the tank sucking air like they can't get enough oxygen. All the other fish are behaving normally. I use nothing except pure water purchased at my local aquarium store. The weird thing is even after a 50% water change they were back to doing it within 24 hours. I have a canister filter with a UV filter. Since it's summer and the tank is by a window I turned the heater down a little b/c sometimes hot fish will stay at the surface. The only thing that's changed is I introduced 4 of these African dwarf frogs, purely aquatic and not more than 1.5" and a couple new plants, everything bought from a local aquarium store. I'm also using a new brand of frozen brine shrimp for the last 2 months without any issues. So yeah I'm out of ideas. If the fish community has any ideas it would be most welcome.

I caught my fish doing the same thing when my air pump accidentally got unplugged. The canister filter does not keep fresh air between the lid and water surface. The other 2 things that cause breathing problems are high ammonia and gill flukes. Try an airstone first. It doesn't even have to be in the water, just under the lid.

 

The addition of your frogs most likely lowered the amount of oxygen exchange. Air stones are always great. Make sure to test your parameters as well. How big is the tank and what is the stocking?

 

I'm positive that it's the gas exchange at the water's surface that caused the issue. It may be that without agitation on the waters surface, CO2 is created faster than the atmospheric oxygen is introduced into the tank. Even in a heavily planted tank, plants by themselves, are not able to maintain equilibrium. You don't need a lot of agitation either, even a simple air pump may be sufficient.

What the aquarium community has taught me is the importance of the gas exchange at the waters surface. You also saved 2 rainbow, but they are just the first ones sucking air, the bigger minnows would be up there within the next day or two. I started this thread because I was positive the two rainbow fish were going to die, and if I didn't solve the problem the other fish would follow.
Thanks community for saving my fish.

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I'm positive that it's the gas exchange at the water's surface that caused the issue. It may be that without agitation on the waters surface, CO2 is created faster than the atmospheric oxygen is introduced into the tank. Even in a heavily planted tank, plants by themselves, are not able to maintain equilibrium. You don't need a lot of agitation either, even a simple air pump may be sufficient.

What the aquarium community has taught me is the importance of the gas exchange at the waters surface. You also saved 2 rainbow, but they are just the first ones sucking air, the bigger minnows would be up there within the next day or two. I started this thread because I was positive the two rainbow fish were going to die, and if I didn't solve the problem the other fish would follow.
Thanks community for saving my fish.

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I’m glad you’ve learned something Thanks for caring about your fish so much. This hobby is great.