Fish bloated and gasping for air

[aquan00b]

My Fire Goby has been showing a red bruise like mark on it the last few days. Today I noticed the body has become bloated. it's puffed out from both sides around the mid section. This is very noticeable. I didn't notice it at feeding time a couple of hours ago.

It's not easy to see in the picture. I've also noticed him swimming up to the surface and gasping. The other fish in the aquarium are fine. I also have 2 clownfish, a cleaner wrasse, an electric blue damsel and an elegance coral.

I've been feeding the fish frozen brine shrimp. I've had them for 5 months.

The parameters are 0 for nitrites and ammonia. Nitrites are less than 100ppm before I did the water change yesterday.

Does anyone know what's wrong - and what I can do to correct this.

 

[aquan00b]

I've noticed his tail looks shredded and he only uses the front fins for propulsion. It looks like he's getting stressed with the effort required to keep up with the current. I've started putting Aquarium Pharmaceuticals MelaFix into the aquarium. It should hopefully help with the damaged fins.

I've also set the timer to turn of the lights half an hour earlier so he gets some more rest.

Any other recommendations - or am I totally on the wrong track? Please let me know.

 

[BTTRFLYGRL]

First off....Brine shrimp has no nutritional value at all...Get some better frozen foods, a good variety is key..

Remove the Melafix...won't do a thing but make your skimmer go crazy

Try adding Prazipro to its food for internal parasites

 

[aquan00b]

Thanks for your help. What food do you recommend? Is Mysis shrimp any better? Or blood worms?

I don't have a skimmer on the aquarium.