Swim Up Side Down

beckypyyeung · Post by **beckypyyeung** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 4:53 am

Hi Everybody ! Long time no see!

Everybody in my fish tank is doing fine. My 12 tiger shrimps have been living with my tetra without any problem so far. I found something funny. My tiger shrimps used to be lazy, but in the past two weeks they enjoy (I guess they enjoy) swimming up side down near the water surface and then they return to the bottom again. I don't know why. They still look healthy coz the tip of their heads and tails are in a bit orange. Anyone has seen the same?

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:43 am

I can't say about tiger shrimp, but I would suspect an oxygen problem. Do you have any sort of a bubbler going?

beckypyyeung · Post by **beckypyyeung** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 4:44 pm

Aha, there is a layer of something which looks like 'oil' on the water surface. I've tried some 'oil remover' liquid but the oil appears again the next day. Now I just use a cup to get the layer of oil on the surface and pour it away. But the oil also comes back one or two days later. A shop keeped once introduced an oil-remover device to me but it was too big for my tank. I wonder if there is any other way to remove the oil.

BM · Post by BM » Sat Jan 21, 2006 6:12 pm

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... &N=0&Nty=1

You can buy something like this, a surface skimmer. It attaches to the intake tube of your filter, and it draws water from the surface (the layer of "oil") and from the bottom. Or you built one yourself, pretty simple, just do a search online for "do it yourself surface skimmer".

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 7:00 pm

Low tech solution:
Take a peice of paper towel. Drop it flat on the surface. Remove it imeediately. Repeat as needed.

What are you feeding these guys?

beckypyyeung · Post by **beckypyyeung** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 7:25 am

Oh, thanks a lot for your advice

Then it's much easier than using a cup.

I give them four different fish food, one each day:

(1) AZOO 9 in 1 micro pellet for tetra and small-sized food (made in Taiwan)
(2) White Crane Red Color Enhancer Food (made in Thailand)
(3) Nutrafin Max, Sinking Complete Food Tablets (made in Taiwan)
(4) a kind of food for baby fish (made in China)

Is the problem from the food? If it is, any suggested food?

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 12:31 pm

It is probably too much food rather than the type of food. You should feed only as much as they will eat in a few minutes. If you come back 15 minutes later and see any food left, then that is likely the issue. Cut way back and see if it helps.

GunmetalBlue · Post by **GunmetalBlue** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 6:40 pm

Hi Becky, I actually did recently witness a few of my shrimp doing this. The reason was that my filtration had slowed to a crawl and there were some debris on the surface which apparently, the shrimp enjoyed picking at.

Although I had been scheduled to rinse out the sponge on the intake of the filter (using used aquarium water), I had just rinsed a part of the filter media inside the filter, so waited for the next week to tackle the sponge (you shouldn't rinse everything out at the same time). In the meantime, when I had restarted the filter, the surge caused excess gunk to come out of the outflow, which dirtied the intake sponge even more - thus the slowed up filtration. I've cleaned the intake sponge now so the flow is back to normal.

In the past, I've also dealt with a tank that didn't have powerful enough of filtration that the water coming back into the tank didn't break the surface tension much. That particular tank experienced the "oil slick" you refer to. When I started researching it, one of the suggestions was the paper towel trick.

The problem is, you'll have to continue using it (you're not actually taking care of the problem); it can introduce lint into your water; and lastly, not too many people know that paper products like paper bags and paper towels give off small amounts of formaldehyde. I think it's used to make the paper products stronger, but truthfully, I don't know why. I'm not necessarily saying it's in enough quantity, and I've read formaldehyde may not last long in water - so, I don't really know if it does pose any dangers in an aquarium situation. However, I recall when dealing with other sensitive animals (not water animals), to refrain from using it, so I don't use it inside tanks in such a manner, either.

So IMHO, the best solution really, is to have adequate enough of filtration where you have some water movement and agitation to break the surface . I did that, and no longer have the problem. Badflash's suggestion of not overfeeding should help too.

-GB

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 8:05 pm

I don't know why they don't make something like this, but what I do is use a standard undergravel filter. I put the bubbler tube in the center and use a standard over the side filter rather than the bubbler. I put the intake tube down the bubbler hole and use a big o-ring to seal it up. This moves loads of water through the gravel and gives me a place to put special filtration when I want it (like removing phosphates). It also breaks up the surface water and creates turbultence for my filter feeders.

The only down-side is my riccia. The flow tears it up something terrible. To deal with that I cut a big section out of a gallon milk jug and put it around the out-flow of the pump. This keeps the riccia from getting entraned.

beckypyyeung · Post by **beckypyyeung** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 5:59 am

Hi BM, Badflash and Bunmetalblue,

Thanks a lot for your advice. I just give them a little food twice a day. They finish it in two to three minutes.

I've already adjusted the water flow of my filter so that water current can break more water surface. It really works. Thanks a lot for your help