were my fish dying or suffocating?

fishsticks

No clue about reefs
tonight my room was really hot an stuffy i turned on my light an my fishes were on the floor breathing hard, i remember sum1 saying the top of the covers must be lifted to let fresh air into my small bio-cube tank and the lil waves produced by the power-heads will help my water get oxygen. i lifted my tops an turned on my ceiling fan to cool down my room from getting even more stuffy! so then i did a 10% water change they seem to be kicking now, i did this minutes ago ha talk about midnight work. then i noticed them more alive so was i foolish an goin crazy or were they just sleeping???? one was almost on his side like he was tired from breathing hard or something
 
Little tanks just have not got the big margin of safety that comes with larger volumes. The water would not have heated up as fast in a larger tank, hotter the water the less dissolved oxygen. To a good extent the hotter the water the higher demand for oxygen by the beneficial bacteria in your bio system of rock/sand. If your fish have been having problems under less demanding conditions (lower Temps, poorer circulation, poorer ventilation), the it is likely you might have made a lucky save. Good to have mothering panic instincts even for fish, and the stand by water reserve seemed to have been well worth any effort needed to maintain it in the ready.
 
They might have been simply sleeping. What kind of fish are they? My clownfish lays out flat as a pancake on the bottom of my tank or in the rocks every night If I turn the lights on for something it often takes several minutes for it to "wake up" and start moving again. Triggers will sleep like this as well and one of my Damsels does. This is perfectly normal and you may not have a problem at all.
 
They might have been simply sleeping. What kind of fish are they? My clownfish lays out flat as a pancake on the bottom of my tank or in the rocks every night If I turn the lights on for something it often takes several minutes for it to "wake up" and start moving again. Triggers will sleep like this as well and one of my Damsels does. This is perfectly normal and you may not have a problem at all.
I used to think it normal for fish to just lay around when the lights were out at night until I found out about the lower Dissolved oxygen levels at night, and found after raising those dissolved oxygen levels back up to near day time levels that most of the the fish did not lay on the bottom anymore.
 
My clown fish lies inside a little plastic cup every night. He stops moving and lies on his side or stomach. I know he's sleeping. It's one of those little 2oz plastic cups that restaurants use for taco sauce or ketchup. Kinda milky white plastic. I was raising frags in one of these cups and Nemo started hosting in it. So, I put another one in the tank and set it on the bottom where the current is low. Put a snail shell and some sand inside to weigh it down. Nemo sleeps in it every night. He swims around all day, but his internal clock knows when it's about night time. He moves over near his bed and settles in for the last 15 minutes of light each night. Lights go out and he hunkers down into his cup and doses off. It's really kinda cute.
 
Most fish have developed methods to not become dead prey while at periods of rest. Some actually tightly lodge themselves in rock gaps. Some develop relationships with other life forms, such as anemone fish with anemone. It is not normal for fish who are normally prey to just lie about in the open. Sure alot of fish are tank raised and some have probably never been actively preyed upon. But, there is a difference between laying lifelessly on the bottom of a tank and sleeping in a secure location like a cup. As well there is a huge difference between a noticeable increase in gill action and water swallowing of a fish not receiving enough oxygen and the "breathing" patterns of a fish who is "breathing" from well oxygenated water. A lot of the behaviors we see in fish are mistaken for normal and/or acceptable behaviors when they are not. Low oxygen behavoirs at night are one area that aquarists have ignored symptoms for years thinking them normal or acceptable. A lot of these "normal" and "cute" behaviours disappear when night time oxygen levels are brought up to near day time levels. There is no where near the difference, percentage wise, between day and night time dissolved oxygen levels on the ocean reefs. Also a lot of home ownwers actually run hotter room temperatures at night, which equates to hotter tank water temperatures. The hotter a tanks water the lower amount of oxygen it will hold. Also the higher the temperature the more rapid the break down of fish waste and dteritus to ammonia. Fish have obvious "breathing" problems in the presence of ammonia. Plus the hooter the temp of the water the higher the oxygen demand by the tanks bio system. Plus, plus, plus . . .
 
My clown fish tend to either find a little cave in a rock or just hover in the corner of the tank at night. I do run a fuge with an opposite light schedule so the O2 levels should be pretty stable.
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Brian
 
My clowns also just hover. I've never seen them just laying in the open on the bottom. To me, that would be a bad sign. I agree with Fatman on this one.
 
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