in the last few hours one of my plecs keeps swimming to the top of the tank and hits its head on he glass lid?

is it getting air?

has any1 come across this before?

Cheers

My bn occasionally do it but not on a regular basis however they do not hit their heads as there is a big enough gap between the water level and the lid. I assume they just come up for a good amount of air.

If they do it occasionally it's normal, gives you a fright if the room is all quiet and a foot long pleco comes up for air.

If they are doing it all the time, check your water quality. They use the air breathing thing to take a gulp of air into their gut. If the water is low in Oxygen they can use that air to survive, so if they are doing it all the time they may be getting stressed.

But occasionally, they just want a breath of fresh air.

Ian

What is the water temperature? It was 30C in ChCh today and I suspect a lack of oxygen as the water temp rose.

hi i just checked the temp and its at 31

so is this the reason it swims to the top?

as my other plecs in the same tank dont :-?

That sort of temperature could certainly be stressing it, low oxygen level etc.

I've been floating bottles of ice in my native fish tank to keep the temp down.

Switching off the lights during the day will help too.

Ian

I should think fish are like humans, some can cope with higher temps than others. Try and get the tank temp down and add extra oxygen.

cool thanks people

ive turned down the heaters and hopefuly that maks a difference

It will make no difference at all! The heaters only turn on if the tank gets below the set temperature. Turning the heaters off will not stop the tank heating up to room temperature. You need to cool the tank or the room.

Try turning off the lights and removing the lid (if you do not have fish that like to jump out or cats or kids that like to jump in)

Blow a fan across the water surface or drop in a frozen slikka pad, or 2L bottle of frozen water.