firestorm Posted December 7, 2008 Report Share Posted December 7, 2008 (edited) I noticed yesterday that one of my bolivian rams is breathing heavily on the bottom of the tank. The rest of the fish seem fine, and all my parameters read ok. It is a 90 gallon tank with my discus, other bolivian rams, clown loaches, cardinal tetras and BN plecos. He is showing no other signs of illness other than him having his mouth open and breathing faster than normal. He is also hiding in the back, and is normally my dominant male. He doesn't have any loss of color or clamped fins, instead he has all his fins raised as though he is showing dominance. I don't think it's lack of oxygen in the tank otherwise all the other fish would be acting the same way. I always do 50% water changes every 3 days because of my discus, and the temp is at 86 degrees. I changed the water on friday last. I am stumped at what it could be because all other diseases I have read about always have other symptoms, or the ammonia or nitrites are high (which they're not). He also doesn't seem to flash off objects, so gill flukes seems out of the question as well. I am just at loss of what could be causing this, and I certainly want to catch it before anything bad happens. Should I try putting him in QT? I will have to empty out another tank to do this. Should I just watch him after that and see if he shows any other symptoms, or should I treat him with something? If so what should I treat him with? I was thinking of using salt, should I give him a salt bath? Edited December 7, 2008 by firestorm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted December 7, 2008 Report Share Posted December 7, 2008 How's the circulation in the tank - is there complete top-to-bottom movement? I have noticed that when there isn't enough water movement from top to bottom, the fish that live on the bottom start to breath heavily after a while. Tho, w. 50% WCs twice per week, this shouldn't be bad. CO2 equipment? My CO2 tank just about dumped today, and my fish are breathing heavy... could that be the cause? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted December 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2008 I never thought of that, since the tank is deep. I have an eheim 2250 on the tank with the spray bar pointing down, and an AC 110 creating a good splash at the surface. For CO2 I only have the Red sea yeast system (the one with the power head) and a hagen natural plant system with bubble ladder. The tank isn't really well planted so I haven't added more CO2 than this. Although I did unplug the power head for the red sea system, could that be causing something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobies et al Posted December 8, 2008 Report Share Posted December 8, 2008 ? something stuck in the mouth? Is he eating? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qattarra Posted December 8, 2008 Report Share Posted December 8, 2008 I think o2levels at the bottom are low, perhaps put and powerhead near the bottom to really push the water to circulate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted December 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2008 I looked in his mouth and there appears to not be anything stuck in it. The substrate is sand I use so none of the grains are large enough to get stuck. I can see about moving my powerhead temporarily out of my other tank, and see if that makes a difference. The only thing that gets me is none of the other rams or clown loaches are acting this way, and they are all on the bottom. Even most of my discus like to hang out at the bottom from time to time. No he's not eating now. He was eating up until a few days ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobies et al Posted December 9, 2008 Report Share Posted December 9, 2008 Do you have any idea on how old he may be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted December 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2008 I have had him and another ram for about 8 months now. They were probably about 1/2 their size they are now when I got them, so I am guessing they might be just over a year old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobies et al Posted December 10, 2008 Report Share Posted December 10, 2008 Well, I'm stumped, too. For sure it's not failure to thrive due to old age! He simply could just have a flaw in his circulatory system that was able to compensate for, until this size and any stressors (eg. hormones, drive to procreate, O2 levels) are maxing him out. In the wild he would drop out of the genetic pool. Just a thought. Not particularly useful one I realize. I hope he just has a fish version of a flu bug, and rallies for you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted December 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2008 I know I am completely stumped. I did treat them with jungle parasite clear just in case ( I figured it could be an internal parasite), but that was on saturday and still no signs of improvement from him. I am just sad because he was one of the first rams I bought, although I do have 4 other male BR's. I initially bought 2 of them, finding out later on they were both males, then I got 3 from Barbara and they all turned out to be males as well. He was my dominant male in the tank and always made sure things were in order. I would have thought if anything it would be a sub dom male that would turn ill before my dom male. I have added extra salt to the tank as well just in case, but hopefully he will get over whatever this is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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