Fish gasping for air.

Question
We recently started a new 55gal tank with 5 very small goldfish, 6 glofish, 2 guppies, 2 platies, 2 mollies, 2 mystery snails, 1 pleco, 1 synodontis longirostris, and 5 ghost shrimp. Everything has been wonderful! Until today... Our goldfish are at the top gasping for air as well as the synodontis (well he is swimming upside down gasping). The other fish seem to be OK but are going to the top for air more than usual. Are temp, PH, ammonia, and ect are all in the ideal range. Plus we have a good filtration system and oxygen supply with novelty air pumps and a bubble curtain as well. We did however add aquarium salt about 24hrs ago after a trip to Petsmart as they told us to do so. Could that be our problem? Or could it be something else we havn't checked or am missing? We love our fish and would hate to see something happen to them! Please help!

Answer
Hi there,
I hope your fish are doing OK.

The symptoms you provided definitely point towards a water quality problem. You mentioned the ammonia and ect are in the ideal range? Have you been able to make sure ammonia and nitrite are both reading ZERO? Its very very likely that since this aquarium is a fairly new setup that there hasn't been enough time for the 'biofilter' or good bacteria to develop to help control the ammonia being produced by the fish. When too many fish are added too soon into a recently setup aquarium, the waste they produce overwhelms the system and what little bacteria are present cannot take care of the ammonia and therefore it or nitrite can build up (even trace amounts are stressful) and do serious harm to your poor fish.

At the moment I would recommend an immediate 50% water change. This sounds drastic but it is absolutely vital to keeping your fish safe and hopefully preventing them from being too damaged by the pollutants in the water.

You may have to repeat these water changes everyday until things can settle down and some time can pass to allow some good bacteria to develop to take care of the pollutants.

Salt is often still recommended by many sources and petstores, but it really is not vital for keeping your fish healthy. It has been proven many times and documented in Aquarium books and magazines by expert breeders that fish live perfectly healthy lives without salt in their water. It is best reserved for whenever your fish are ill as it can be a great addition along with a medication treatment for certain parasites and bacterial infections.

Salt can be irritating to certain invertebrates and fish. Your snails won't appreciate it very well and your catfish (including pleco) don't particularly do well with it.

So for now, water changes are the key.

One word of warning: be very cautious listening to petstore advice. In my years and years of experience they are just about always wrong with their info. Look into fishkeeping magazines like "Tropical fish Hobbyist" for some really good info. Or I'd also recommend buying the book - "The simple guide to freshwater aquariums" or try finding it at your library.

Best of luck and I hope all goes well!
Karen~