Increasing oxygen in aquarium

[flossy]

Hello, I currently have a sponge filter and hang on back in my 20-gallon fish tank. Corydoras recently have been taking breaths from the surface. Water parameters are fine, any ideas on how to increase my oxygen>

[jwcarlson]

Corys just sometimes breath from the surface.  You're probably fine, but if you're worried you can just add a regular air stone and see if that changes their behavior.

[Tony s]

Will second that. Depending on species. My skunks and peppered don’t. My pandas do. My albino greens used to. They now too old and tired🤣

[lefty o]

as long as the tank isnt way too warm, it should be fine. as mentioned sometimes cory's just like to break the surface.

[Jeff]

A few options:

1. Add another airstone to your tank

2. Add the Easy Flow kit to your sponge filter if it's an Aquarium Co-Op sponge 

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/filtration/products/easy-flow-sponge-filter-upgrade-kit

3. Add a power head - if you have an ACO sponge, you can add the ACO power head on top of your ACO sponge. 

 https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/filtration/products/aquarium-co-op-power-head

 

Edited April 7 by Jeff

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/6/2024 at 8:32 PM, flossy said:

Water parameters are fine, any ideas on how to increase my oxygen>

What are the water parameters, including temperature?

Add an air stone (or two) or bubble wall.

[flossy]

@nabokovfan87Ammonia: 0 ph: 7-7.2 nitrite: 0 nitrate: 40 ppm temperature: 69 degrees

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/8/2024 at 1:30 PM, flossy said:

@nabokovfan87Ammonia: 0 ph: 7-7.2 nitrite: 0 nitrate: 40 ppm temperature: 69 degrees

Seems fine. Keep an eye out if the temp is consistently below 70, but it shouldn't be too much of a concern. I would recommend getting a liquid GH+KH test kit as well to be able to track that. (pH gets too high, can lead to other issues and stress signs with corydoras)

So yeah, I think what you witnessed is very likely typical, normal behavior.  Even a content and happy corydoras will purge up to the surface to gulp air.  This is just part of what they do for a variety of reasons. I imagine on some level it's a corydoras "checking" to see if there are predators around and at other times they do it just to signify a little bit of breeding behavior. High stress activities like that can lead them to have some rapid breathing and gulp air.

If you watch the fish on the bottom of the tank and they seem frantic and always breathing extremely quickly, rapid gill movement, then you would want to try to add some air stones.