fish breathing heavily.

[Sean0711]

Hi guys,

i have had my 70gal tank up and running for just under a year now and over the last week i have noticed that a few of my fish are breathing rapidly my two clownfish, flame hawkfish, yellow tang and blue tang seem to be breathing heaver than usual. but my banggi cardinals, square back anthias and orange spotted goby seen fine. i have checked all my levels this eve and they are as follows:

temp = 25.6
salinity = 1.025
pH = 7.8
NH3= 0
NO2=0
NO3=7
KH= 14.7
Ca= 430
Mg = 1350
PO4= 0.3

some other info about my tank just for reference, my ph has always been around the 7.8-8 mark all my clean up crew seem unaffected eg the 4 cleaner shrimp, 5 turbo snails, 2 sand sifting snails, 3 red leg hermit crabs and 2 strawberry conchs. i have another smaller tank up and running and use the same water in that for my water changes and this is made from D-D salt and RO/DI water made in my garage.

any help or advice would be great,

thanks

sean.

 

[snorvich]

When was the last wet item added to the tank?

 

[Sean0711]

the last thing added was the two strawberry conchs 2 weeks ago and previous to that about 7-8 weeks ago was the flame hawk fish.

 

[Mishri]

your ph is low, make sure it isn't dropping below 7.8. (7.8 is considered minimum acceptable) - I'd raise it to 8.0 if I were you. I would consider 8.2 ideal conditions.

is the tank cloudy at all? getting good oxygenation?

one thing to consider would be parasites...

 

[Sean0711]

i know the ph is a little low but i cant seem to raise it above 8. oxygenation should be good as i have a 450L skimmer on the tank. running a CO2 scubber and ouside air feed into it. would parasites not effect all the fish? if that is the case is there any way of treating the tank that wont effect the clean up crew? its a FOWLR tank forgot to mention previously.

 

[snorvich]

the last thing added was the two strawberry conchs 2 weeks ago and previous to that about 7-8 weeks ago was the flame hawk fish.

You may have introduced a parasite with the conchs.