firestorm Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 (edited) In my 90 gallon malawi tank, all the fish seem to be breathing heavier than normal. They started doing it yesterday, so I did a quick 25% water change and put cool water back in. Now this morning they are all doing it again. I last did a water change before this on saturday night. Filtration is an xp4 and a fluval 404, outputs are creating ALOT of surface agitation and both filters seem to be functioning properly. Unfortunately I have a test kit, but lost the booklets for the color charts. The tank is by no means brand new, and it is less stocked than it was last week. The only new thing I did was add a piece of driftwood that came out of another tank. But that should not be a problem at all since I had it in the other tank for over 6mths. Anyone have any ideas what could be going on? I will do another quick water change when I get home tonight, don't have time right now. But could it be something in the tap water? Thanks Oh and none of my other tanks of fish are acting this way. Edited February 18, 2009 by firestorm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Ram Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 Best to check for ammonia and nitrites first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnaw Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 You didn't by-chance clean out your filter media? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geleen Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 It would not hurt to double the Prime dosage just in case there is a water problem. Spring is here....well kind of and run-off may be happening. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qattarra Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 It's a deep tank? I think your O2 is too low and your nitrates may be rising . I suspect if you do an 80% water change you'll see great improvement , or you can add a water pump near the bottom increasing the flow from the bottom to the top . In my experience with the deep tanks, you can have the surface moving like rapids but the bottom is suffocating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 Ammonia poisoning is damaging to the gills and other organs, which causes the fish to breath heavily. Nitrite will irritate the fish and it will start shaking and rubbing itself against objects. Did you check to see if maybe you have a dead fish somewhere in the tank that could potentially build up ammonia faster than your nitrification bakteria can handle? Gill flukes also cause heavy breathing. I don't think your oxygen levels are low if you have good surface agitation, unless your temperature is really high. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 What kind of test kits do you have? IF you have an ammonia test kit most of the ones I've used were: clear = zero ammonia, any color(usually yellow) meant it detected ammonia. You can find most of the test kit color charts on company's websites. The colors on your monitor will be a bit different but it will give you an idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted February 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 Temp is at 79, tank is a standard 4' 90 gallon so not very deep. And as I stated there is good surface agitation to keep oxygen levels good. I didn't clean out any filters this weekend, and I don't use anything other than bio media and sponges so don't have a problem with any chemical filtration leeching stuff back into water. They seem to be doing slightly better when I got home tonight, but will be doing another good water change tonight just in case. I am thinking if it was from my water supply, it would have affected other tanks too, like when Harold lost a bunch of his fish because of the water supply. I know ammo reads white, just not sure what color nitrites would be when it detects some. I don't think it's flukes, none of the fish appear to be flashing, and all the fish are accounted for.......I will have to double check and see if my 2nd chinese algae eater is somewhere, he's the only one I didn't look for. Thanks for the help so far guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JORG Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 I would remove the driftwood as it might be leaching something that these fish are unacustomed to, and add an airstone and do a 25% water change and see what happens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boom Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Double up on your Prime as well as it's the season for using extra Chloramine in the water treatement process. That'll hurt their gills for sure. Boom :boom: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randy Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 What brand of test kits do you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soliver Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 I found that drift wood lowered my PH. Not sure how that would affect the fish but i know it would stress them out if there not used to it. Nitrite ready purple/pink when there is a lot. Normally it should be blue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JORG Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Double up on your Prime as well as it's the season for using extra Chloramine in the water treatement process. That'll hurt their gills for sure.Boom :boom: As far as I know Calgary does not use Chloramine in the water Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 I don't think it's your water supply. You said it started yesterday (tuesday) and last time you did a waterchange was saturday. If it was the water you would have noticed something earlier, and it would have gotten worse when you did another 25% change yesterday. It seems far fetched to me that it could be the wood, but if that's the only change you've done... Was there fish in the tank where you had the wood? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 ..unless there was unusual high amounts of chlorine in the water when you did the water change on saturday, not enough to affect the fish, but enough to kill the filter bakteria. This could have caused the ammonia levels to slowly rise. The 25% waterchange on tuesday would have diluted the ammonia temporary, until this morning when it was high again. If this is the case then you are going through a new cycle. Prime will bind the ammonia but you could end up with a nitrit spike... maybe adding some seachem stability to be safe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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