New 10g, Heavy Breathing.

F

FishRhard

New member
My Lemon Damsel has been breathing heavy since I put him in my 10g about 4 days ago. He was not breathing heavy at the store when I bought him. He has no signs or symptoms of MV, Brook, or Ich. Here are my tank stats:

10g live rock (11 lbs.)
ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0-5
Salinity - 1.024
PH - 8.2
Filter - Marineland Penguin 150b
Lighting - 2x T5 with led strip.
Powerhead - 40/GPH nano (off brand)

Background-
Tank was cycled with live rock and live sand using small dead shrimp. The tank was cycled for 6 weeks, although all parameters had stabilized by 3 weeks. (The rock was purchased from an LFS aquarium.

As soon as the cycle was finished at week 6 I added 5 snails, and a cleaner shrimp. 2 weeks later everything looked happy and healthy so I added a Lemon Damsel. Later that evening my wife surprised me with a Condylactis Anemone (Womp womp womp)...:facepalm:

So, the nem is great and chilling halfway up one of my live rocks. He had a touch of white to him when my wife first bought him, but its almost completely brown now which is a big relief. I know the tank is too small for him and will re-home him asap.

The problem is - The Damsel has been breathing heavy since we purchased it 4 days ago. As I said it wasn't breathing heavy in the store display. Coloration is normal, no white spots, no powdery look, no rust coloration. Swims constantly, kind of zippy at times. No flashing or grinding that I've been able to see. It even eats like a pig. 4 Days and the lil bugger already eats out of my hand. I love this lil guy, please help me save it :sad1:
 
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Could be phosphates on the nem

A ten gallon is small for any fish except small gobies... Maybe your damsel got stung by the nem. Could also be internal parasites, lfs don't keep their fish on hand long term so he may have been fine at the lfs and a little stress was all it took to bring his resistance down and something to get him. Also a cleaner in a 10is pushing it... Just my $.02
 
Marchillo said:
40 gph powerhead or 400? 40 gph would be 4x turnover. Definitely not enough. How did you acclimate?
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40 gph. It came with an old 3.5 gallon nano that I used as a treatment tank. Between the powerhead and the filter I have about about 200/GPH are you sure thats not enoguh? I respect your answer, and if you say my fish is suffocating i'll go buy a stronger powerhead right now.

Acclimation: 20 minutes floating, 30 minutes dripping with a valve control.
 
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Jeff4777 said:
Possibly water not oxygenated well enough? Flow a bit low, do you have a skimmer?
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This is what I was getting at. Do you have a glass top? Is the pump breaking the surface of the water? For fish only you need 10 x turnover which is 100 gph for a 10 you can get a 240 gph koralia for under $25 and that would give you 24x's which would be good.
 
FishRhard said:
40 gph. It came with an old 3.5 gallon nano that I used as a treatment tank. Between the powerhead and the filter I have about about 200/GPH are you sure thats not enoguh? I respect your answer, and if you say my fish is suffocating i'll go buy a stronger powerhead right now.

Acclimation: 20 minutes floating, 30 minutes dripping with a valve control.
Click to expand...

I think it's worth a try. Everything else seems normal. He could have normal stress.

Do you know what the salinity was of the water he came from? If it was really low that could be a problem. Lfs usually run salinity pretty low.
 
Nah no skimmer, no glass top. The pump is breaking the surface of the water but just barely, and its pretty close to the surface. As for the 10x turnover for FOWLR is that including filter? Because if so I should have about 20x with my filter and Powerhead combined.
 
The salinity at the LFS fluctuates between 1.021 and 1.024. Also I should have mentioned that for some ungodly reason they don't buffer their water and their PH is only like 7-7.5. /shrug. I was careful not to shock the fish with the PH change.
 
Some say they count their return pumps / filters etc. I'm not sure. Personally no matter what happens with this fish Id put in a powerhead that is stronger. Maybe others will chime in with opinions. It seems like you did the right things so I'm not sure.

When is the last time you tested the water?
 
FishRhard said:
The salinity at the LFS fluctuates between 1.021 and 1.024. Also I should have mentioned that for some ungodly reason they don't buffer their water and their PH is only like 7-7.5. /shrug. I was careful not to shock the fish with the PH change.
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Yeah so the jump probably wouldn't have been too bad.

If no one else chimes in Id try another powerhead for now.
 
Aight, thanks for the help. I have an extra few hob filters laying around and tons of air stones. Should I fill the tank with bubbles and filters? Lol ( Dont judge me xD)
 
Ok so have you read up on the Condy? I know nothing about them but did a Google search. They are semi aggressive and can sting fish. Also they produce a lot of waste I guess. Plus your tank is way to new for one.
 
Yeah I saw that too. Did a ton of research after wifey gave me that "gift". lol

I just wonder about what e048 said about the nems releasing phosphates. I hadn't stumbled across that tidbit in my research. Would active carbon take care of phosphates? I'm currently running active carbon. The shrimp is constantly cleaning the condy, but I've never seen it release waste yet. Also I've kept a pretty close eye out for the Damsel when it gets close the Anemone. So far it doesn't even get close to the nem, but who knows what goes on after lights out : /
 
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I don't think he said the nem released phosphates just guessing that's what the brown spots are. I think gfo removes phosphates. I don't think that's the issue with your damsel. I've battled my share of phosphates and haven't lost a fish.
 
Thought about trying a freshwater dip just to see if it helps his breathing (Could mean parasite). But like I said there's no visible signs of a parasite and the extra stress from being moved could kill him if hes already weak. Although aside from his breathing he doesn't seem weak at all.
 
Also hair algae has absolutely dominated my tank in the last couple weeks. Gonna have to get a ton of blue hermits to combat it. Would there be any correlation between the algae bloom and the heavy breathing of the Damsel? Just throwing out whatever detail i can think of at this point.
 
What's your water temp? Low temp could make it sluggish. Most likely is you need more flow and the water is not oxygenated enough.

Are all your snails alive? In 10g tank that is new it wouldn't take much to have a mini cycle and a dead snail could do it.
 
edinphilly said:
What's your water temp? Low temp could make it sluggish. Most likely is you need more flow and the water is not oxygenated enough.

Are all your snails alive? In 10g tank that is new it wouldn't take much to have a mini cycle and a dead snail could do it.
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Yep all inverts are alive, and seem to be thriving. The only oddball is my poor damsel : /

And sorry i left the temp out of my original post. The temp stays at 75.
 
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