Why is my fish swimming vertically towards the top of the tank?
Posted on September 30th, 2009 by admin
Fish
Its alive. Its a Lemon Tetra fish. I got home today and cleaned the tank and when I put it back in it went directly to where the heater is in the back of the tank and was swimming vertically just kind of sitting there. I removed the heater and it still did the same thing. I fed it and it ate a little but then didnt really do anything just kept swimming. It did go down breifly and just kind of layed at the bottom of the tank. The head is upward facing so it kind of looks like its trying to breath- but i have an air pump and it seems to be working. there is another fish- exact same kind and its completely normal!HELP!
To clean the tank I took them out and put them in a little container then I empited out the majority [but not all] of the water. I scooped out about half of the gravel and rinsed it off with the tap water [NO soap or anything else] then put it back in. I put in two gallons of purified drinking water from like the store and then two gallons of tap water which I put in some thing thats soposed to make it okay for fish.I turned the pump back on and yah thats about it. I know it wasnt a complete cleaning probably but I just wanted to get it basicly clean because it really wasnt. My moms going to get stuff for PH and Ammonia testing today. If it is high what do you do to fix it?
Okay, Yah I read a little about the feeding and the ammonia thing online and so ive only been feeding them a little bit mostly because the other fist has been eating it so yah. Its only about two weeks old [the tank] maybe three. Yesterday I did a gallon water change. [its a 10 gallon tank] and although its still going up there some and when its swimming it has a strange arch that makes it kind of vertical, it has came down and been swimming around some. When I woke up this morning it was in the structure castle thing that I have in the tank- and thats where it goes sometimes in general…so maybe its getting better? Im going to get a test thing today.
The ammonia level was a 2. We are changing the water again about 25-30 percent and doing as you said. Is this all I can do?
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Its alive. Its a Lemon Tetra fish. I got home today and cleaned the tank and when I put it back in it went directly to where the heater is in the back of the tank and was swimming vertically just kind of sitting there. I removed the heater and it still did the same thing. I fed it and it ate a little but then didnt really do anything just kept swimming. It did go down breifly and just kind of layed at the bottom of the tank. The head is upward facing so it kind of looks like its trying to breath- but i have an air pump and it seems to be working. there is another fish- exact same kind and its completely normal!HELP!
To clean the tank I took them out and put them in a little container then I empited out the majority [but not all] of the water. I scooped out about half of the gravel and rinsed it off with the tap water [NO soap or anything else] then put it back in. I put in two gallons of purified drinking water from like the store and then two gallons of tap water which I put in some thing thats soposed to make it okay for fish.I turned the pump back on and yah thats about it. I know it wasnt a complete cleaning probably but I just wanted to get it basicly clean because it really wasnt. My moms going to get stuff for PH and Ammonia testing today. If it is high what do you do to fix it?
Okay, Yah I read a little about the feeding and the ammonia thing online and so ive only been feeding them a little bit mostly because the other fist has been eating it so yah. Its only about two weeks old [the tank] maybe three. Yesterday I did a gallon water change. [its a 10 gallon tank] and although its still going up there some and when its swimming it has a strange arch that makes it kind of vertical, it has came down and been swimming around some. When I woke up this morning it was in the structure castle thing that I have in the tank- and thats where it goes sometimes in general…so maybe its getting better? Im going to get a test thing today.
The ammonia level was a 2. We are changing the water again about 25-30 percent and doing as you said. Is this all I can do?
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Filed under: Fish
Sounds like he’s dying…
I’m sorry.
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Your fish is trying to breath. If the other one is normal, then your fish has a breathing problem. Hopefully it will get better. Good Luck.
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sound to me like he is probably dying, check the temperature and everything else to make sure this does not happen to the rest of your fish.
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a lot of answers to that one,was the water temp the same?did you use a dechlorinater/ager..the fish might be just too old now,but add rapid white spot remedy,it will help most fish, a salt conditioner will also help,good luck
maybe he is dying or maybe something is over there in that corner that the other fish is not interested in.
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Have you checked your water chemistry levels lately? This is a very classic sign of ammonia exposure, and I am thinking this maybe a new tank, OR your cleaning regimine is a little off. How do you and what do you do for cleaning? I’d take a reading on your ammonia, and I’ll bet you have some high levels in there. Check your ph as well. At levels that are usually only just stressful to fish, at a higher ph, they become lethal. If you could give me a listing of what you do when you clean, and what your ammonia is, I’ll get back with you in the morning. It’s 1 am here so I’ll check back on this before I go into work.
JV
FOLLOW UP:
Ok please post back what your readings are. In the future when you clean, leave your fish in the tank, and only take out about 25-40% of the water. It’s not chlorine then if you added the conditioner. I really suspect this is from ammonia now at this point, and depending on what the reading is, you may need to do another water change or wait. One last thing I’d like to know, how old is this tank, in terms of how long has it been up and running? If you have ammonia readings above 1.0 and your ph is 7.8 or higher, then we need to take some action very quick.
Please though, food will not help the fish, they don’t use it like you and I do to help fight infections and heat our bodies. If you feed them, keep the feedings very small and just enough they can eat within a minute or two, entirely. Excess food is a big ammonia source if it’s uneaten. I’ll check back again off and on if you can post the readings you get.
HE IS DYING THATS WHAT HAPPENED TO MY EUREKA RED CICHLIDS AFTER THEY ATE ALGAE WAFERS THEY DIED IN 3 MINUTES
LAST TIME I GET SOME ONE ELSE TO FEED MY FISH WHILE IM AWAY