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Fish struggling at surface

Richard40

Richard40

Member
Joined
14 Jan 2020
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321
Location
Manchester
Hi all, I’ve waited 4 and half weeks to add any fish into my tank. Today was the day.
I added 10 GBR’s all of which were doing fine, but as the day has gone on a few have been struggling at the surface.
My initial thought was too much CO2 and not enough O2.
What I’ve done is turn the CO2 off for today. I will re examine I’ve raised the glass outlet pipe so that there is loads of surface agitation to create more O2. Is there anything more I can do? I have a Twinstar steriliser which is also on.
PH was 6.5. Temp 25.
Is there anything else I can do to get these fish swimming around?
 

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Yes Rams. Tanks on a weekly cycle for water changes which will be Sunday.
The drop checker was a lime green colour but there must have been too much C02 and not enough surface agitation to create 02 for them. I’m hoping now I’ve turned off the CO2 and increased 02 it might sort itself out for them.
 
They need some time to adjust to the CO2 IMO. If you have turned the CO2 off turn down your lights (if you can) slowly increase the BPS over a few days and they should be fine IMO/IME (I have never had Rams in CO2 injected tank)
 
Definitely running too much CO2 in the tank. Most are swimming around fine now. Phew....
 
Hi all,
Richard40 said:
Definitely running too much CO2 in the tank. Most are swimming around fine now.
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Good, and almost certainly no permanent harm done.
Richard40 said:
I added 10 GBR’s
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Richard40 said:
Yes Rams.
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That is a lot of territorial fish.

Because they are cichlids, albeit fairly mild ones, there will be a pecking order with two or three dominant fish taking territories on the bottom and excluding the others. You may be all right for while, but they will eventually need about 30cm x 30cm per fish, so you can only really keep a pair long term successfully in 60cm x 30cm tank.

Have you got somewhere you can re-home some of them?

cheers Darrel
 
Cheers Darrel,

I’ve had mixed messages tbh regarding the Rams. I’ve read that they can be territorial but also that they prefer large groups when in the wild. Alto who has kept Rams explained this would be better. I’ve bought juveniles on purpose because of this. I do have a separate tank if it doesn’t go to plan but also would have to take back to my LFS.
 
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Hi @Richard40

I agree with the points raised by @dw1305. I used to keep GBRs and I was pushing my luck having two males and three females in a 125 litre tank. Darrel mentions a 60cm x 30cm tank. What size is your tank? How many males and how many females do you have?

It looks as though you've brought the CO2 under control. That's good.

Some people have difficulty keeping GBRs. I would encourage you to get acquainted with the water parameters they prefer. Here goes:

https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/mikrogeophagus-ramirezi/

Note that they do prefer warmer water than many fish. I used to keep mine at 27C.

JPC
 
5 female and 5 Male. I bought them from Apisto Aquatics. Like I said I went off advice from Alto and Peter Clarke from Apisto aquatics.
It’s an EA Aquascaper 900. If it doesn’t work out, at least I’ve tried!
 

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Richard40 said:
I’ve bought juveniles on purpose because of this.
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Hi again @Richard40

GBRs mature rapidly with a life span of 3 - 4 years. I once raised 41 GBRs after a successful spawning so I saw how quickly they developed. The juveniles themselves make spawning attempts after just a few months. They are beautiful fish and I fully intend to keep/breed them again. If you're wondering what I did with 41 of the little beauties, I sold 30 of them to MA and gave the rest to my buddies at the local aquarist society.

JPC
 
Ghettofarmulous said:
I prefer the high surface agitation and Co2 high injection rate. Use more Co2 but O2 is plentiful also.
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Yes I found that with my tank I needed a high bubble rate to get my drop checker to turn lime green at lights on and stay that way until lights off but without any fish. Plant growth has been excellent.
I’m going to start off slightly slower with good surface agitation tomorrow and see if they are ok. Currently all enjoying swimming around sifting through the sand.
 
Hi all
I’ve had mixed messages tbh regarding the Rams. I’ve read that they can be territorial but also that they prefer large groups when in the wild. Alto who has kept Rams explained this would be better. I’ve bought juveniles on purpose because of this. I do have a separate tank if it doesn’t go to plan but also would have to take back to my LFS.
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You do normally recommend that people buy six juvenile fish, six just makes it likely that you will get both sexes.

I’ll be quite honest, I’ve known Peter for along time, but I don’t understand why he sold you so many fish.

Cheers Darrel
 
Like I said he said they do better in larger groups. He said they spawn close to each other in large groups in the wild. Only time will tell, they are the only fish in there for a couple of weeks so I’ll keep my eye on them. Can always sell off some pairs on Band if required.
 
Richard40 said:
5 female and 5 Male. I bought them from Apisto Aquatics. Like I said I went off advice from Alto and Peter Clarke from Apisto aquatics.
It’s an EA Aquascaper 900. If it doesn’t work out, at least I’ve tried!
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Ah, it looks like your tank size may just be OK. It seems that the Aquascaper 900 is 900 x 500 x 450 (mm) and 186 litres.

I would have expected your LFS to give you more like 7 females and 3 males but let's see how things develop. I would try to create areas in your tank where each male/female pair was out of sight from each of the other male/female pairs owing to their territorial nature. So, each pair will have its own territory. But, that's over-simplifying things somewhat. The GBRs will do their own thing.

I will watch your thread with interest.

JPC
 
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