Why is my goldfish gasping for air on the surface?
by Aquaboy on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | 5 Comments
I purchased a black moor goldfish 2 day ago. It lives in a 30 litre Biorb aquarium (which is also brand new, but had been set up 3 days before the fish was purchased as instructed). For the last 24 hours or so, the fish has continually been at the surface gasping for air in the same spot. The tank has a cylindrical tube up the centre and is therefore well airated. Any thoughts? Thanks kindly.
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Do you have it in enough water? I read when it gets bigger it needs to be in 30+ gallons of water. Good luck!!
Is there an air filter, pumper thing? haha drawing a blank. if not, get one of those.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090816153840AAmSuNe
You can add a bit of aquarium salt to help oxygen absorption.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=485
This helps your fish maintain healthy gills.
Biorb’s are unsuitable for Goldfish – 30 litres is too small and there’s not enough surface area, and the filter is too poor – and with it only being set up 3 days prior to the fish being added, only now is it going through the nitrogen cycle causing an ammonia spike which will be burning the Goldfish’s gill tissue causing it to gasp for air – left untreated it will suffocate.
“instructions” that come with tanks are often hideously wrong, as are their stocking guides. They just want you to spend spend spend!!
Take the Goldfish back before you lose it and read through this:
http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/The_Nitrogen_Cycle
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=5322
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861
Ammonia poisoning due to the biorb being overstocked will cause gasping at the top. Yes, even one goldfish is overstocking a 30 litre biorb. Goldfish need 20 gallons for one fish because they are massive waste producers (that is about 75 litres).
Just because it has a tube up the centre doesn’t mean it’s well aerated, and indeed, biorbs are not well-aerated aquariums because the amount of surface area at the top of the water is limited by the spherical design.