Heavy breathing

[sharynmarie]

It seems like my fish are breathing a little heavy tonight. I know my nitrates are at like.. 30. Could this be causing it? what else could?

 

[Lotus99]

Low oxygen or ammonia could cause that too. Are they at the surface? If so, I'd suspect low oxygen. Point a powerhead towards the surface or otherwise get more surface movement in the tank.

 

[sharynmarie]

I will retest the water now. but no the clowns are in the middle of the tank where they normally hang out. Though for some reason the female wont let the male come up front. and the mandrine is at the bottom.

 

[sharynmarie]

niterites 0
ph 8.2
ammonia .25
niterates 15\
alk 290
salinity 1.023 1/2

 

[sharynmarie]

and the clowns are eating fine.. like pigs as always. the mandrine seems to be eating fine.

 

[Salamander]

Post some more information about your tank. Age, parameters, set up, filtration, flow, inhabitants etc. Hard to give advice with little info to start with.

Lotus's advice to agitate the surface is good as would a water change.

 

[FBNitro]

That ammonia reading isn't great. Has anything passed recently, Snails/Crabs maybe?

 

[sharynmarie]

yeah I had a dead snail. I pulled it out.

 

[masonicman]

I try to keep alot of hermits for this reason. The blue legs hermits. The red get big to fast.

 

[Beanfish]

If you had done a recent water change and not let the water mix sufficiently, this could cause the fish to breath heavy as well.

 

[FishRhard]

If you had done a recent water change and not let the water mix sufficiently, this could cause the fish to breath heavy as well.

I hate to necro such an old thread but i'm having a similar situation with heavy breathing atm, and I feel that it would be good info for others searching for answers.

If the water wasn't mixed sufficiently enough how long would the heavy breathing last? and by "sufficient" I assume Beanfish meant letting the salt fully dissolve.