Help! New semilarvatus breathing heavy!

[nsinger]

3 days ago, I put a semilarvatus butterfly in a one month old QT that had cycled. Today, I noticed that she is breathing very heavily out of only one gill, the other side is not really moving. The ammonia did creep up a bit when I checked it this morning, and I did a 33% water change and used novaqua in the QT. There is still some detectable ammonia. Any idea what is going on? I'm surprised that only one gill is moving quickly. There are no spots of any kind. I have not been using any prophylactic medications in the QT.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Ammonia will burn the gills and make respiration very difficult. Get the ammonia to zero ASAP. Put some cured live rock in there if you have to.

 

[nsinger]

Thanks. I'll put it some LR right away, and check the ammonia daily. I'm willing to do a 50% water change daily if that would help.