surface behaviour

[stardotstar]

Hi all,

(new here and returning to aquariums after many years - got a small 20L tank for my young daughter who loves it)

The tank is well filtered, has air stone and the surface is well disturbed all the time. The tank has a small fantail, comet and tiny catfish, two small snails and lots of weed.

The fish appear to be sucking the surface as though they are gasping but there can't be too little oxygen. Its almost like feeding behaviour but there is no food around.

They are healthy and seem quite happy. They get fed once a day in the morning and the water is clear and they get periods of light during the day as we don't leave the light on all the time. Also the aerator is turned off over night because it seems to disturbe the tank a lot and the noise etc.

Any thoughts?

Will

[rollie]

sound to me you might have an ammonia problem.

the filter should be on and running all the time.

by turning it off at night, the good bactiea may be dieing.

[tieu]

o is that true rollie? nice fact if it is i never new by turning of filter good bacteria die

[rollie]

if you turn the filter off each night, the good bacterea never have time to grow.

it true. plus why would i lied. i do see the lot of bad advise on the net so you got to be carefull.
if you got fish "YOU NEED TO BUY SOME GOOD FISH BOOKS".

I GOT OVER 40 BOOKS, PLUS HUNDREDS of magazines.

everything i am told on the net, i double check it , by some of my books.

or i will phone one of my expect friends for help.

believe it or not , there is alot of bad advice giving on this site, to.

but not by me, but unless you got some books, how would you know that.

[William]

Rollie is right. The good bacteria in your filter will die if you turn it of during the night. wht is even worse is that the dead bacteria will "create" toxins that vare released into the water when you turn the filter bak on.

[Richalds]

i think hes talking about turing off the bubble wand at night, not the actual filter.

Would that matter much?

[rollie]

bubble wand might be okay to turn off.

[William]

Yes. airation/bubble wand is ok to turn of as long as you have good water qaulity.

[stardotstar]

Only aeration is turned off asince for this size tank it is surely cosmetic - the disturbance of the outlet from the filter is quite large... The fiter is never off. The light and the aeration only.

Will

[Richalds]

you are fine then, nothing to worry about.

if the fish were deprived of oxygen you'd see them at the top trying to stick their mouth into the air and gasping for breath. You would notice they are breathing very heavily as well.


it wouldn't be subtle, so if you don't know if it's happening or not - it probably isn't.