# Fish Gasping for Air after Water Change - HELP



## mtam0707 (Jan 11, 2013)

I should also say that last night when I added the slime coating I also added a water clarifier.


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## Mahlady (Dec 19, 2012)

turn on a bubbler or airstone? Gasping to me means, not enough oxygen? Otherwise, no idea, other than a water test.
Another option is, cloudy water=bacterial bloom, when this happened to me, within 2 days I had a fish die daily until visual signs of Ich ended up on my Blood parrot, she looked like she had little pieces of salt all over her. No one else was affected, but I did have to treat the whole tank, and lost half of my fish over the course of a few days. My BP survived and ended up with circle scarring all over her body but she is healing and doing well after treating the tank.

Look for visual signs of disease or parasites on them, if you see flecks, def ich. Treat asap or you could lose them all. 

Water changes can put sensitive fish in shock even with only a 2 degree temp change. 

Another suggestion is do not change your filter media at the same time you do a water change.
I alternate. Water change weekly, then if I need to change the media, wait 3 days and change it, then wait another 4 days for the next water change.
You could have eliminated the good bacteria in your tank.


Sorry bout your fish.

Mah


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## Greenmagick (May 2, 2010)

How big is the angel? 10 g is very small for one.

Fish can be hard....sometimes you dont get a clear answer for what happens. If the water was colored from leftover food I am guessing the water quality was pretty rough. Doing a change probably stirred a bunch of icky stuff up. 

I had what I assume was a bacterial bloom once. My filter stopped working and I didnt notice right away....then I noticed a cloudy film on the bottom third of the tank. Not thinking I just turned the filter back on and it all stirred together....and every fish in the tank went belly up


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## MSG (Jul 16, 2012)

Make sure you shake up your water testing solutions before you conduct these tests. 

Look up "cycling your filter" & "how to clean your filter cartridges". 

Sounds like your tank has too many fish & you created a ammonia spike by swapping out the existing filter cartridge with a BRAND new one. 

You should NOT use "water clarification" solutions. Your filter should "clear up" cloudy water for you within a day or two. 


This suckerfish is actually a plecostomus?

Are there any LIVE plants in your 10G tank?


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

You are only added distilled water with no minerals? If so, you are stripping your water of all it's minerals slowly over time. Distilled water should only be used for top off's unless you adding minerals back with a gh/kh booster.

Let's say your water is 200ppm of TDS, water evaps, that goes up to 220ppm, you top off the evap'd water with distilled, it goes back to 200ppm.

You are changing water, and thus diluting it down more and more. That is going to change the kH value, which is going to make the water more prone to pH swings.


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## Sluggo (Nov 6, 2010)

Distilled water is two H's and one O, and essentially nothing else. Your fish need the electrolytes and minerals in tapwater for proper osmosis. Without them, they can drown, dehydrate, or have trouble eliminating ammonia from their systems.


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