Heavy Breathing... Help

90reefkepr

Member
my blue tang has just begun to breath very deeply
i tested parameters and found out that
ammonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrate-20
dont know what the cause is
temp and salinity are normal
 

ross

Active Member
How long have you had him? Is there plenty of surface agitation for oxygen exchange?
 

vmarius1

Member
I have a perc. clown that started breathing heavy. I moved him to my quarantine tank when I noticed a white scale on him. Since then, I have found out that when they are coming down with Ick or some other problem they will all of a sudden start breathing heavily.
If your other fish are not breating heavy, I would move him to a quarantine tank, if you have one, and keep an eye open for Ick or some other problem until he starts breating normally.
I needed to treat my clown with a fish antibiotic (great for sinus infections too). He cleared up in a couple of days and breathing normally. Just put him back in tank.
One other thing, have you done anything to put him under stress??? If you introduce a larger alpha fish into the tank, they will get stressed and breath heavilly.
Hope this helps.
 

90reefkepr

Member
ya i run skimmer
ph is 8.3
hes been in the tank about 1 1/2 mnths
there is 1 fish larger then him a royal gramma but hes been in there the whole time and he dosnt bother anyone
 

ross

Active Member
I would guess not enough oxygen in the water. Point a powerhead at the top to agitate the surface.
 

zoocrazy

Member

Originally posted by sweetreef
Nitrates are not your problem 20 isnt death threating what is your ph?

i know the nitrates are not a problem, i was just saying i'd do a water change before they get any higher.:)
 

sweetreef

Active Member
the only things i can think of to make a fish do that is high ammonia or nitrites are low oxygen are protozoan infection..But as your saying in your testing ammonia and nitrites are 0 so i would say one of the other two could be the cause..
 

clarkiiboi

Active Member
Originally Posted by 90reefkepr
there is 1 fish larger then him a royal gramma but hes been in there the whole time and he dosnt bother anyone
First sorry to here about your tang. Secondly, and anyone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe a tang that small would be hard to house with a positive outcome. It may of been a specific tang I read that on (I can't remember at this moment), but wanted to throw that out there as an option.
 
Top