Fish Floating At Top of Tank

[rmarrandino1]

All of a sudden today all of my fish are floating at the top of the tank and the plecos are running to the top and then diving back down. They've never done this before.

I also checked the water and Ammonia, Nitriates, and Nitrates are 0. The nitrates sort of worry me because I've had this tank for a while an I'm never at 0. Also, the PH is way low, around 6.4.


I'm assuming that its lack of oxygen, so I'm going to buy an air stone.

Is there any other advise anyone can provide me?

Thanks!

 

[Lotus]

Is your filter working correctly? Did you change anything in the tank lately?

 

[rmarrandino1]

Is your filter working correctly? Did you change anything in the tank lately?

The filters seem to be fine. I have a Top-Fin 60 HOB and a Rena XP2.

Over a month ago I had a case of ICH that killed a few of my fish. After treating and waiting a couple of weeks I bought a few more smaller fish. I've had them at least two weeks now and they all seemed fine until today.

I also I replaced one of the heaters 10 days ago, but the temp is has not fluctuated.

I have a 55 gallon tank and bought a Top-Fin 60 air pump with two outputs. I hooked one outlet up to a 28" bubble wall and just put the other on an air stone. Now it seems like way too many bubbles.

I can't think of anything else.

 

[billytkid]

Take the lid of your tank (if you have one), then point whatever pump you have to push water to the top of the tank to create disturbance, this will help put more oxygen in the water

 

[TabMorte]

You might want to take out the heater and see if that helps. It could be shocking them and you wouldn't know it.

Are they gasping at the top?

 

[rmarrandino1]

You might want to take out the heater and see if that helps. It could be shocking them and you wouldn't know it.

Are they gasping at the top?

Yes, they seemed to be gasping. The heater was a new Stelth replacing another heater that didn't regulate the temp.

Last night I lowered the water level so that the HOB filter was agitating the water. Later I installed an air pump and bubble wall and they all seem to be fine now.

It's changed the water flow and the fish look like they need to get used to the new pattern, but hopefully that's not a big deal.

I've had this tank for a couple of years and never had this issue, so I'm still concerned that this started now.

Thanks to everyone who replied.