Volitan is gasping for air!!!

[fishfry]

I have had my Volitan for 6mos+ in a 75 gallon with others. The trigger seems fine, the toadfish, the dogface puffer, snowflake and green eel seem fine. The porcupine and volitan are breathing very hard. My Volitan is the size of a small basketball. He is bright red like when he is alarmed or pissed. He is vertical in the tank gasping for air!!! Any thoughts on what the hell is going on??? Please help. We did a 30% water change, and dosed it with emergency denitratification - deammonization chemical. I thought maybe one of the died and that is what caused the major spike. Is it possible the toadfish or lionfish excreted poison into the tank?
will post current parameters momentarily...

 

[mx#28]

Very simply, you are massively overstocked.
What kind of filtration do you have?
Do post your parameters ASAP.

 

[fishfry]

massively? You don't even know how big my tank is..a 75 gallon.
Ammonia 0 - chem induced
Salinity 1.019 - lowered to reduce aptasia
Temp 81
Ph 8.2
Nitrate 80 - 160
Nitrite .25
For some reason the nitrite and ammonia spiked extremely high. Nothing died didnt do anything differently. Makes no sense.

 

[mx#28]

Yes, I had figured that your tank was a 75 gallon because that is what you wrote in your first post. A brilliant piece of deduction, yes?
The reason you are experiencing a spike in ammonia and the subsequent compounds of the nitrifying process is because your system simply can’t keep up with the bio-load you have. As these fish grow larger (they all get rather large) they continue to put more and more of a strain on your water quality. ANY ammonia or nitrite is a bad thing and your nitrate level of up to 160 can also have ill effect.

 

[dragonzim]

In addition to your tank being overstocked as was stated in another post, I've never heard of doing a hyposalinity treatment for Aiptasia control. It is usually used as a treatment for ich.

 

[nigerbang]

Originally Posted by DragonZim
In addition to your tank being overstocked as was stated in another post, I've never heard of doing a hyposalinity treatment for Aiptasia control. It is usually used as a treatment for ich.
Thats what I was thinking....
Who told you that???
That tank is waaaaaaaaaay overstocked.....The 2 eel (not to mention fish) are super messy eaters and produce a ton of waste...I would venture a guess that the tank finally couldnt handle the load anymore...Therefore the rise in Ammonia and Nitrite..

 

[shrimpi]

a fish turning red or getting red streaks is often a sign of a bacterial infection (could be from poor water quality)
Can you post a pic of your fish?

 

[myreef05]

No flaming here, just prepare for the worst. In the mean time keep doing water changes and try to make arrangements to get rid of 1/2 the livestock.

 

[fishfry]

The lionfish was only red cause he was irritated. None of the others were. I am familiar with the infection you reference. The aptasia have in fact died as a result of reducing the salinity. There was not one single good method in a year to kill the hundreds of rather large at times aptasia except for this method ; ) In short, it worked. Sorry about dogging you about the tank size I forgot I posted that. So we are to big for our britches with our fish and tank : ( Will ask around to sell the green wolf eel, maybe the dogface...gotta keep the volitan and toadfish though. Thanks everyone for the advice. It just seemed a bit odd. Bam it was chaos...Now ...all is well in the overstock agua hood.
D-boy

 

[mx#28]

Originally Posted by fishfry
The lionfish was only red cause he was irritated. None of the others were. I am familiar with the infection you reference. The aptasia have in fact died as a result of reducing the salinity. There was not one single good method in a year to kill the hundreds of rather large at times aptasia except for this method ; ) In short, it worked. Sorry about dogging you about the tank size I forgot I posted that. So we are to big for our britches with our fish and tank : ( Will ask around to sell the green wolf eel, maybe the dogface...gotta keep the volitan and toadfish though. Thanks everyone for the advice. It just seemed a bit odd. Bam it was chaos...Now ...all is well in the overstock agua hood.
D-boy

No worries. Remember, you could always keep the fish and upgrade the tank.

 

[grouperlover]

Your fish ( puffers and lion especially) will prob. need like a 110 gallon aquarium