My fish seem to be staying at top like they are grasping for air even the algae eater? Could it be nitrates? i

Question

I put a nitrate , chlorine and ammonia remover, the PH is fine.

Could it be i used tooo much yesterday?? I feared the nitrates were still high so i put a little more remover?? Help!! I ve had my fish since december of last year, why arethey acting this way?

Answer 1

Listen to Lanab, he is 100% correct

Answer 2

it's a classic sign of  poisoning-did you check the ammonia levels? it's possible you added too much chemical but ammonia is the usual culprit-either way a large (at least 50%) water change is needed and buy a test kit to monitor levels

Answer 3

Water changes - lots of water changes.

You cant remove Nitrate by adding chemicals, so now you have the Nitrate AND the chemicals in the water.

Stop adding chemicals, apart from basic water treatments to remove Chlorine, thow them all away. The only simple way to control Nitrate is water changes - just do more. Your filter will take care of ammonia, by converting it to.. more nitrate. So you must remove that nitrate from the system via water changes.

Ian

Answer 4

you need to do a 50 to 75 percent water change asap that is the key sign of an ammonia spike

the way you lower nitrate's is not by useing chemicls you lower it by doing water changes

useing chemicals to ballance a tank out is a bad idea as it will hide i bigger problem as you are finding out

Answer 5

You need to make sure the water is being agitated so that oxygen is getting disolved into the water. Air stone will help, the fastest way would be an water change and fast