stressed out fish!!

[sgomes77]

the test kit i bought did not have a test for nitrate so i dont know the level of that. i will do another water change though. a week into the tanks cycle i put in that bio-spira stuff to help process also.

 

[Roan Art]

Nitrites hamper a fish's ability to process oxygen. That's why your fish are gasping.

As everyone has said, water change. The air stone will help the fish for the time being, but the only way to really help them is to get the nitrites down to 0.

Once your tank is cycled, you won't need the air stone.

Roan

 

[rrkss]

Get those Nitrites down ASAP. I want you to do a 50% waterchange every 12 hours until they are below 0.25 ppm. Nitrite does the same thing to a fish's blood as Carbon Monoxide does to a human's blood (almost the same thing). Pretty much it chemically reacts with the hemoglobin making the blood cell useless. These cells will not be able to carry oxygen and have to be replaced which can take up to 3 weeks to do. I would also add 1 teaspoon of salt per gallon to the tank to reduce the Nitrite uptake into the fish. Make sure you predissolve the salt in a cup and disperse it into the tank as far from the filter as possible so that the salt solution enters the filter in a highly diluted state. You need to start this regimen right away. The fish could have pure oxygen bubbled into their tank right now and still die simply because they are losing the ability to transport the oxygen from the environment throughout their bodies where it is needed.