Is your fish, shrimp or snail suddenly acting weird?

Is it showing the following symptoms?

• Is the fish rubbing its body on the substrate, plants or tank wall?
• Is the fish trembling or suddenly and rapidly swimming off?
• Is the fish breathing rapidly with only one side of their gills?
• Is the body whitish in color with a sticky substance covering their body?
• Is the fish acting abnormally like it is in pain?



If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the questions above, this article may help you.

I don’t know how long you guys have been fish keepers but I know that in noticing a problem with your fish, you have already started to fix the problem. If you act calmly, you can fix the problem, so do not worry and continue to read this article.

Let me explain it in simple terms. There are a lot of different substances in the water in the fish tank. Within these, there are those that are beneficial to fish and harmful to the fish. After the initial setup of the tank, the amount of beneficial and harmful substances change slowly with time. This is because the microorganisms living in the water change. The speed of material and chemical decomposition can also contribute to it. In other words, even if you execute water change periodically, the amount of matter decomposed by the beneficial bacteria increases. (Ofcourse, as time goes on, the decomposition speed decreases.)

*Most of the time, it is due to the change in pH, though it can be due to other reasons as well. There are not a lot of fish breeds that can live for a long time in a pH below 5. 

Therefore, each tank is a little different, but there comes a time when the beneficial and harmful bacteria balance breaks. This is problem that fish keepers occasionally go through. A tank that was fine starts to smell fishy and fish start to die one by one.

Most people ‘reset’ the tank to try to get rid of the problem and this is not all bad. However, if there is a better solution, shouldn’t we give it a try? Resetting a fish tank means washing everything in tap water and starting new. This is a very tedious job. 

My proposed solution is a little different from the ‘reset’ method. 

First off, all troubleshooting starts with the correct diagnosis so the water parameters must be checked. 

If possible, you should purchase a water test kit and get an accurate measurement. 

When the pH is too low (lower than 5)

• Add coral to the tank to prevent the pH from dropping any further.
• Add a product that increases water pH to adjust the tank’s pH

When ammonia and nitrite is high (0ppm excess)

• There is a problem with the filtration cycle. This can have a significant effect on the pH as well.
• When the pH rises or falls suddenly,  it can affect the efficiency of the bacteria in the filter. 

When nitrate is high (50ppm excess)

• You are not changing water frequently enough.

Other problems that can arise

After putting new fish in the tank

• New fish must be kept in quarantine before putting in the tank because you do not know whether they have any diseases or parasites. Even though the fish breeder is a reputable seller and they said the fish is perfectly healthy, it is still wise to quarantine. 

When there is a big difference in water temperature from morning to night

• Tropical fish can live in most temperatures, however, if the difference in temperature exceeds 7 degrees farenheit in a day and this continues for multiple days, it can stress out the fish and cause it to get sick as a consequence.

When there is not enough oxygen in the water

• Most aquatic animals utilize dissolved oxygen to breathe. When the amount of oxygen in the water becomes low, the fish goes to the surface of the water and sticks out its mouth in order to breathe. If you notice this happening, you need to add an air stone in the tank to provide more oxygen.

If none of the above applies

• This is very rare but the water condition of the tap water might not be optimal. Most people think that a water change will fix everything. However, what if there is a lot of nitrate in the tap water? The more you change the water, the more harm it will do to the fish. Instead of blindly trusting the city’s tap water, you should get in the habit of testing it from time to time. It is important to purchase a test kit and test the water parameters. 

I hope that this article helps and that you can see your fish healthy and thriving again. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Have a good day.