Keeping Oscar Fish | Why Are My Oscar Fish Gasping?

Why Are My Oscar Fish Gasping?

Gasping at surface

Gasping at the surface, breathing heavily, rapid movement of its gills, various signs that all may not be right, action is required! Before you start jumping on forums asking lots of questions, take the initiative and carry out a few very simple steps first. Firstly, do some water tests. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. For the time being, we will be concentrating on the ammonia and nitrite. Are the readings acceptable? Ammonia and nitrite should be zero, nothing higher. If you do get any trace readings then there is a problem somewhere. Before I start getting into what you should do if you do get toxic readings, I will mention one of the most common causes of fish breathing heavily or gasping at the surface. It's quite simple, there is not enough oxygen in the water. Have a look at where the water comes back into the tank from the filtration. Is it causing the surface water to ripple quite a lot? Is the nozzle/spray bar submerged under the water? If the answer to the latter is yes, make some adjustments so that the nozzle/spray bar is sitting just above the surface. What you are trying to achieve is having a constant flow of water causing lots of bubbles when it enters your tank. Have you ever be seen what goldfish and carp do on really hot days in the summer? They sit just under the surface and do nothing, or they hang around outlets where water enters the pond. The reason being is on very hot days, the oxygen levels drop dramatically in water. They will go to where ever they can obtain oxygen. This is something else you need to bear in mind in the summertime. Nine times out of 10, a lack of oxygen is what makes fish breathe heavily. If you've got an air stone, put in the tank and give it half an hour, if the fish stop breathing heavily, you'll know that the oxygen level was low. I personally believe having an air stone running all the time in the tank is a very good way of adding extra oxygen into the water. However, you must not rely on just an air stone for oxygen, this is just a little extra help.

Let's go back to testing the water. Let's create a scenario. Our nitrite level is 0.3 and the ammonia level is 1.2.5. Why has this happened? This can often be a very difficult question to answer. Let's start by asking ourselves whether we have cycled our tank properly? If not, please read this section. Has a fish died and we haven't noticed? A rotting corpse could certainly play havoc in the tank. Okay, let's take a close look at the tank, it is overcrowded? Keeping too many fish is going to land you in all sorts of problems. Now we ask ourselves how we cleaned our filtration system. Did we clean the filter media out under tap water, or in existing tank water? Please read this section regarding this matter. Then take a look at your feeding regime. How much to do you feed in one session? Do you just pile in lots of food and then walk away, or do you wait and remove any uneaten food. Uneaten food is often the reason why people end up with poor water conditions. Would you leave a chicken lying around your kitchen for a few days? Of course you wouldn't, don't do it in your fish tank.

We have to decide what we are going to do now. First thing you want to do is try and lower those toxins. You achieve this by doing a large water change. Depending on what the readings are, you could go up to around 50% of the water. This will definitely reduce the toxins, but it will not cure your problem straight away. You are going to have to test the water every day and do this procedure when necessary. If you have a fairly healthy colony of bacteria in your filtration then it shouldn't be very long before your tank is back to normal. However, if for some reason you have killed them all off, you are going to have to cycle the tank again.

If your ammonia is at a lethal level, there are products available that can help avert a disaster. One such product is called prime and is manufactured by Seachem. What this does is convert ammonia into a non-toxic form. I haven't ever used it when my tank is cycling. I personally don't think it's necessary, after all, you should be cycling your tank with hardy fish. You could use it in situations where you have fish that are sensitive to poor water conditions. This is the sort of product I would use if for instance I was to lose my beneficial bacteria for one reason or another. Because you would have a fully stocked tank, the ammonia would rise very quickly, more than likely to catastrophic levels. Prime would help prevent the ammonia from harming your fish. There is one thing you have to bear in mind when using these products, even though they have converted the ammonia into a non-toxic form, you will still get a reading on your test kits.

You are probably better off trying to find out what the problem is before you start going down this road, in my opinion that is. If you have high nitrite levels then you might want to consider adding salt to your aquarium. Now, before you start reaching for the salt shaker, stop and read this very carefully. Do not use table salt in your aquarium. You must use cooking salt (sodium chloride). Check the ingredients and make sure there are no additives. If you are not sure what you have got then don't use it, go to your fish store and purchase aquarium salt, it is very cheap and you know you'll be getting the correct stuff. You may want to ask other people how they go about it but I would put half an ounce of salt per 1 gallon of water. Don't just put the salt in the water, mix the salt in some aquarium water first and then put it in. One other important thing to mention is that some fish can't tolerate salt so do your research before adding salt.

Righty Ho, I have covered the most common reasons for fish gasping or breathing heavily. But, don't take this as gospel, there are absolutely loads of reasons why a fish may start breathing heavily. The recent death of my large red Oscar proves this. She was hanging at the surface quite a lot. I wouldn't say she was gasping for air, but she was very close to the surface. After speaking to experts, we agreed that there was a very strong possibility that she did have a serious internal bacteria infection that was impossible to diagnose until it was too late.

An 11 inch Red Oscar fish breathing heavily

Problems that occur in the fishes gills can be caused by such things as disease and parasites such as gill fluke. Fish with these conditions can certainly cause them to gasp at the surface. Always have a closer look at the fishes gill in this sort of situation. If there is a problem in this area, there may be a chance that they will be discoloured and sometimes slimy .

I would suggest you get a very good fish health book and read it properly. For instance, gill disease will make a fish appear to breathe heavily or open and close its gills more often. Fish can be awkward critters, very difficult to diagnose sometimes.

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