[sapris98]

Hello everyone, currently I have a small 5 gallon aquarium with two Guppies in it. The aquarium currently has a Penguin filter with a bio wheel, I created my own little filter bag in which I place a little bit of ammo-carb (this gets changed once a week). I currently change about 25% of the water once a week as well. For the past few weeks (3 actually) the PH levels have been very low and the fishes (mainly the female) appears to be gasping for air. Sometimes she even lays at the bottom of the tank for a few minutes and then goes on her merry way. The male appear to be a little more resistant to what ever is going on, he does appear to gasp for air but acts a little more "normal" if you will.

any suggestions on what might be happening as well as what I may do to remedy this issue, thank you.

 

[ladyonyx]

How low is your pH? (number value) And how warm is the water? Sometimes large swings in temperature (which are pretty common in small volume aquariums) can cause equally large swings in pH

Your tap water might have a really low pH that's causing this issue when you do water changes. Check the pH of your tap next time you do a water change and let us know what it's at.

If the pH in your tap water is really low, you might want to aerate you water with a bubbler before you do a water change to bring up the pH a little. Or put a small bubbler in the tank. Keep us posted

 

[Big Dog]

Try a air bubbler.