fish go to surface after water change, seem stressed

[drondy]

I have four discus in a 75 gallon bowfront planted tank. I do a 80% water change one a week. I have well water that is in pretty good shape. I change the water directly in and out of the tank from the faucet. They have always done pretty well during the water changes but lately it seems that the fish swim to the top of the tank and are tilted upwards. This happens four an hour or so after the water change and then they go back to normal swimming around the tank as thought nothing has happened. Any idea what the problem may be? Thanks, Dean

[jmf3460]

I would check ph out of tap and then age it and check it, it sounds like the ph coming out of the tap may be lower due to co2 and its causing slight ph burn.

[Loosir]

You may want to check the nitrates in our tap. A few of us have noticed a rise lately. I for one have about 15ppm in my tap, thought it was a little late for the spring runoff but who knows.

[drondy]

does PH change between seasons? I did not have this problem in the winter months but now as summer has arrived they are having this issue.

[tvo]

I had a similar incident last night. It was a busy morning so I did not fill up the aging barrel at the usual time. I went ahead and did a 100% water change with only 4hrs after filling up the barrel thinking it was going to be alright. I was so wrong, immediately after the water change all the discus was up gasping at the surface. Thankfully they are now recovering

[MD.David]

This is what I would do:
1)change more water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
80% once a week is how you care for catfish, carp and pond fish not discus.
2) test to see if you have a ph swing
3) test for chloramine, ammonia and nitrate in your tap water.
4) age your water 24 hrs with air stone and heater
5)use seachem safe with my water changes
6) get an inline two stage filter on your water line prior to filling ageing water container (water barrel), your on well water and you could be getting field run off and there could be many different chemicals in that water that your not aware of.
Note:#6 is what I would do first then follow the rest of the steps.

Best of luck!



I have four discus in a 75 gallon bowfront planted tank. I do a 80% water change one a week. I have well water that is in pretty good shape. I change the water directly in and out of the tank from the faucet. They have always done pretty well during the water changes but lately it seems that the fish swim to the top of the tank and are tilted upwards. This happens four an hour or so after the water change and then they go back to normal swimming around the tank as thought nothing has happened. Any idea what the problem may be? Thanks, Dean

[Ryan]

Look for microbubbles.