Breathing rapidly??

[n-e-w-land]

Hi,
I have a 150 gallon sa/ca community with an Oscar, JD, GT, firemouth, Texas, syno and a fire eel.(all but the eel are under 6 inches) The tank has been setup a while and over the past couple of weeks i've noticed many odd things. The ammonia and nitrite are 0, although with my test kit its hard to tell whether the water goes yellow(0) or very light green in the test tube(0.25).

Since I setup the tank up I have struggled to keep the nitrates around 40 at one point it went up to 80, i'm not sure what caused this? The fish have lately begun getting very easily stressed and the Oscar keeps loosing colouration and lieing on his side? The other fish seem ok other than the fact that they're breathing fairly rapidly and growing that quickly.

My main concern is getting them healthy again, however I'm puzzled as to why my nitrates are so high as I do a 50 % water change once a fortnight and and the tank is filtered by an fx5 and a rena XP2. There are two air stones in the tank and some surface movement.

Sorry for the long post, but I have come to the end of my tether as to what to do, I hope you can help me.

Thanks, Jake

 

[Kellem]

Have you cheaked your temp lately?

I had a 200watt heater get stuck and raised the temp into the high 80's,fish did'nt like it.

Your tank almost seems as though its not cycled but we know better.
Are you over cleaning,depleting your tank of nitro bacterial?

Whats your water parameters from the tap?
I was unclear of how often you do water changes but you should be doing them weekly,50% seems excessive.
I do 10% twice a week.

Last question, is your tap water free of chlorine?

 

[Toby_H]

Breathing heavy, laying on their side, loosing color... it doesn sound like ammonia poisoning... but you've checked that...

this could also be caused by other kinds of waste build up such as nitrite or nitrate, but it would take well over 80 ppm nitrate to enduce this extreme behavior...

Smaller water changes more often may prove more beneficial to your fish... although I understand it is less conveneience to your schedule.

As the fish grow, they produce more waste, so it makes sense that you are finding more nitrates at the end of 2 weeks now compared to a month or two ago...

Are you adding any chemicals, buffers or medicines to the tank?

Are your filters set up to create sufficient surface agitation to allow oxygenation?

 

[n-e-w-land]

Hi , the temperature is around 26oC, I have 2 300W heaters. I hope its cycled as its been setup for around 5 months, I have been changing 50% fortnightly and not gravel vacing as the tank is sand based and most of the muck gets swept into the filter intake. I think the tap nitrates are 10. I add prime, de- chlor when I change the water.

 

[n-e-w-land]

One of the filter has its outlet splashing throught the water surface. I might try doing small WCs weekly like you said and maybe add a little more prime as its supposed to lower nitrates, ammonia and chlorine. The nitrite is always 0 and with the ammonia its very hard to tell whether its 0 or 0.25 the nitrate is always high so I guess the tank must be cycled? I have an airpump running.

 

[Ric Foster]

My first thoughts are something is wrong with the water. If your nitrates are too high I would do 50% water changes daily until they drop below 40ppm. Test before and after water change. I would also test your tap water for nitrates, are you over feeding? left over food can raise nitrates. If the food is not totally gone in 5 minutes you are over feeding. What is a fortnight? With the fish listed, in a 150 gal you should be able to do water change once a week and still keep nitrate under control IF your tap water is not already high in nitrate. Do you use PRIME or some other water conditioner? If not I would start immediately. Prime will help detoxify the nitrates.

 

[CichildLuvr]

im not realy smart about fish but ig you have a filter or something ur fish are probally sick

 

[n-e-w-land]

Hi, Thanks for your replys,
I did say that I use prime and my tap water nitrates are about 10, im not sure if I can do a 50% water change every day but i'll do my best. A fortnight is a british word for 14 days.

 

[Alexxxxsv14]

Hi, Thanks for your replys,
I did say that I use prime and my tap water nitrates are about 10, im not sure if I can do a 50% water change every day but i'll do my best. A fortnight is a british word for 14 days.

you should do water changes weekly

 

[Toby_H]

I disagree that you need to do water changes weekly… or should do the weekly...

Different tanks will have different needs…

I personally do water changes weekly, and I recommend doing so to others. But it is very possible to set up your tank so that you do not need to…

I suggest you monitor your nitrates and do water changes as needed… 40 ppm is a respectable maximum for nitrates. So when your nitrates hit 40 ppm, do a water change. It shouldn’t be hard to determine what percentage you need to change so that they will hit 40 in 7 days… or 14 days… etc…

Just so you know, Prime binds nitrate in a non toxic form for 48 hours... ammonia for 24 hours... After that they return to their same old toxic forms. Prime should not be used in place of a properly cycled tank (although I agree your tank appears to be properly cycled) nor should it be used in place of water changes. This information can be confirmed on Seachems website if you dig a little.

I haven't read anything that idicates what the problem is... Whenever I have percular behavior, I do water changes. Fresh water helps most ailments in fish and to my knowledge doesn't case any. So you can (almost) never go wrong with a water change.

The only thing I can think of that hasn't already been ruled out, is aggression. You have a handful of fairly tough fish in a tank and they are all nearing maturity. Is it possible that someone has become a bit of a bully and the others are stressed because of it?