My fish like to be near the top of the water surface

Good evening my fellow fish keeping friends,

I would like to start by thanking everybody who has contributed to my previous posts and for welcoming me so kindly to the forum. I do have another question.

Background information.

30L Tank
4 weeks old
6 inhabitants

.................................

My tank contains six fish, 3 danios and 3 platy's, they (especially the platy's) like to spend a few mins each hour at the top of the tank by the surface. This happens more at night. They are temperate fish and their tank is around 25.C heaterless. I also have a bubble wall (Air diffuser) along the back of the tank. This does not produce bubbles all the way along for some unkown reason.

Do you think the fish are looking for extra oxygen? If one goes up the rest will follow, like a game. The danios will try to eat the bubbles, could they be hungry?

 

Can you get a video of this behavior? Do they seem to be gasping for air? Do you have lights on the tank?

If it happens more at night, it could be that they're resting.

 

Can you get a video of this behavior? Do they seem to be gasping for air? Do you have lights on the tank?

If it happens more at night, it could be that they're resting.

Hey,

Thanks. It does happen more at night with the Danios, the others do it from time to time. They don't seem to be gasping but rather floating close to the water surface. These fish are always hungry so could be looking for food as they tend to stay mid - bottom after being fed.

They love playing with the bubbles at the back of the tank.

Edit: Yes, there is a light on the tank - it's kept on for 12 hours per day. The bubbles are on 24.7.

 

Can you get a video of this behavior? Do they seem to be gasping for air? Do you have lights on the tank?

If it happens more at night, it could be that they're resting.

 

Danios sleep at the top of my tank during the night. Is your tank cycled?

Your tank is only 7gallons? It's not suitable for Danios or platys

 

Hey Landos,

The tank is about 8.5 gallons and I have consulted with pet shop specialists before purchasing the fish. The filter is capable of processing 40L and there is a air diffuser in the tank. The fish won't grow very big.

It was Danios and Platy's or a single goldfish which I didn't think was fair until our new 240l tank arrives.

 

Lfs aren't always that knowledgeable. Many people come here because they have questions, and need help. If there's a stocking issue, someone will bring it up. We all care for our fish, or we wouldn't be here. Though regardless of what anyone here, or there says....research research research. Though, it's odd that those would be your only options. I'm sure you could find some local hobbyists, or some great online sellers that ship to your area.

 

Thanks, there is varying opinion everywhere. I found they with the correct filtration they would be happy and able to have a good life in a 30l! We can't transfer them to our 240l when it arrives as the prospective goldfish may eat them when they are bigger.

 

I'm still very new at this too but my danios spend a lot of time at the top of the tank. They are usually moving, fast, but they take breaks up there too and just sort of "float" or glide near the top. They do this more in the morning. Mine actually sleep at the bottom.
I don't have Platys so I can't say if it's normal for them or not.

 

Was the tank cycled before adding the fish in?

What are you parameters? Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, pH? What's the temp of the tank? Is there a heater on the tank?

Dispute the fact that the tank is wildly overstocked, if the tank wasn't cycled that might give some insight as to why they are staying near the surface. With that many fish in such a small tank, there would be a lot of waste being produced. How often are you doing water changes?

 

Danios sleep at the top of my tank during the night. Is your tank cycled?

Your tank is only 7gallons? It's not suitable for Danios or platys

Agreed... Danios need room to swim around. The dimensions of the tank are small. No leg room, so to speak. It's like keeping a greyhound in a Manhattan studio apartment and never taking them out to the park.

 

I'm pretty sure the tank was cycled as can be before I'd added fish! The nitrite levels where 0.1 and the nitrate was 30.

The water here is naturally hard so I used tetra easy balance to sort the carbonate hardness.

When I was cycling no ammonia source was present so the cycle I suppose could never fully take place until I added the fish.

Fish have only been there for 3 days now so no water changes yet. The pet shop advised every 2 weeks but I will be carrying out a 30% change each week.

Regardless of the situation I now want to make sure I'm looking after my fish as well I can.

 

Tank temp is around 25.c

 

Without ammonia the cycle can't happen I'm afraid. If the fish have only been in there 3 days the behaviour you're seeing is likely due to a build up of ammonia. By putting fish in you've provided the ammonia source and the cycling process can begin. However, in order to keep the fish safe through this you'll need to be doing water changes and dosing Prime every day.

 

Hey Landos,

The tank is about 8.5 gallons and I have consulted with pet shop specialists before purchasing the fish. The filter is capable of processing 40L and there is a air diffuser in the tank. The fish won't grow very big.

It was Danios and Platy's or a single goldfish which I didn't think was fair until our new 240l tank arrives.

Pet store employees are not to be trusted. I found this out the hard way as well. Danios are very active fish, and like plenty of water movement. I keep 12 in my 75 gallon and they occupy and swim throughout the entire tank in a blink of an eye.
Platys are huge waste producers, and also need a bit more room than 8gallons.
But, you're also dealing with an uncycled tank, thus, any fish you put in there is going to show some signs of stress.

 

Thanks, I'll be doing daily water changes and adding prime as soon as I can find where to buy it.

 

Platies need a minimal 10gallon, even then 20 gallon is preferred. 8gallon will cause too much ammonia as they produce a lot. In my 10gsllon I have to do a water change about every 6-8 days. I test my water twice a week. You'll probably need to do one every 4-6, also, what kind of Platy are they? red wag can grow to 4 inches (the red wag is my profile picture). They can get big.

 

I have never owned Danios or Plattys so I can't answer your initial question but I want to comment and agree with everyone that LFS can't be trusted. They either don't know and pretend to or they don't care and just want to sell. Maybe both. I had my LFS tell me I could put a convict cichlid in wirh cory cats and let me tell you, that is so not true after watching my poor corys getting torn to shreds. I don't ever believe anything they say anymore and I research before I buy or I ask people on this group. The corys I was able to save are now in a 55 gallon away from the mean convict but just beware of anything they tell you. Also for future reference, in order to add Ammonia for cycling, you can use fish flakes, Raw shrimp from grocery store or even buying straight Ammonia and putting a few drops will jump start a cycle.

 

My rookie 10 gallon tank had 3 danios. There was never enough room for them. Can you exchange your fish? A betta and shrimp or maybe 2-3 male guppies and shrimp (though still overstocked at least not quite as badly) would be max for that sized tank. However a betta prefers warmer water and really needs a heater for the colder months.

 

Thanks everybody, we won't be exchanging the fish as they have been bought and appear to be quite well settled! However we will proceed with extreme caution and do weekly water changes, using prime and also make sure that we're not over feeding. It's interesting to know about adding the ammonia to start the cycle, I guess I only partly cycled my tank.

 

The ammonia is only for fishless cycling, don't add it now that you have fish...in case you were thinking of doing that

Keep testing the ammonia and other parameters because you may find that you need to do more frequent water changes, possibly as often as once a day or more!

 

The ammonia is only for fishless cycling, don't add it now that you have fish...in case you were thinking of doing that

Keep testing the ammonia and other parameters because you may find that you need to do more frequent water changes, possibly as often as once a day or more!

Thanks Aquaphobia,

I'm currently doing water changes everyday for about a week, I don't currently have a testing kit as run out of strips but will be purchasing one on Monday as well as prime to use every other day. Can you use aquasafe on the days your not using prime? As I will need to eliminate chlorine.

 

Thanks everybody, we won't be exchanging the fish as they have been bought and appear to be quite well settled! However we will proceed with extreme caution and do weekly water changes, using prime and also make sure that we're not over feeding. It's interesting to know about adding the ammonia to start the cycle, I guess I only partly cycled my tank.

Trust us, they're not going to be happy in that small tank.
The best advice I heard when starting this hobby was that it's about meeting the needs of the fish, not our own.
Good luck.

 

Landos, thanks. We will be purchasing a new 60L at the end of this month for our fish.

 

Thanks Aquaphobia,

I'm currently doing water changes everyday for about a week, I don't currently have a testing kit as run out of strips but will be purchasing one on Monday as well as prime to use every other day. Can you use aquasafe on the days your not using prime? As I will need to eliminate chlorine.

I would save the AquaSafe for after you're done cycling since it doesn't neutralize ammonia iirc. Prime takes care of all those things

 

But if I'm water changing every day, you can only use prime every other day so I'll still need to get rid of the chlorine when I can't use prime

 

Why can't you use Prime every day?

 

Something to do with the fact that prime bonds the ammonia for 48 hours so only use every other day. Google using prime and aquasafe

 

When I do that I only find pages about Prime vs. AquaSafe and in every case Prime comes out on top. I've only ever heard that it detoxifies ammonia for 24 hours but even if it did work for 48 it's not going to hurt your fish or the cycle to use more than a single dose amount. And besides, Prime is cheaper than AquaSafe by a significant amount! May as well use it when you know you're going to be using it more often