heavy breathing pbass

[vnzlnboardguy]

I have had 4 pbass in my tank for about a week ago. At first they were scared and stressed about, but slowly the looked better and werent hiding as much. This morning I woke and notice they were breathing heavy so I tested the water. Everything was good except the PH. The PH was really high so I did a 50% water change today. I did half in the morning and the other half at night. They are still eating well but their color if off. I lost a a few fish to ich I believe so im also nervous it might be ich.

How do I best fix my PH?

If it is ich how should I treat it?

-Arturo

 

[troutking]

How high is really high....cuz its better to keep a stable ph than to change it IMO....do u have an air pump it might be cuz of ur oxygen level...cuz i heard that some peole on mfk keep their pbass at higher pH's....if u want to prevent ich raise the temp to like 95 and make sure to have some air pumps and alot of aeration...then add salt to ....like 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons

 

[arowfan]

How high is really high....cuz its better to keep a stable ph than to change it IMO....do u have an air pump it might be cuz of ur oxygen level...cuz i heard that some peole on mfk keep their pbass at higher pH's....if u want to prevent ich raise the temp to like 95 and make sure to have some air pumps and alot of aeration...then add salt to ....like 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons

95 degrees? isn't that too high? I'd say 86 range should be ok, no need to go that hot...just my opinion

 

[Venom SS]

Yeah 86-87 is plenty to kill off ich. It cant survive the 2nd cycle with temps that high. Always use aquarium salt as well. Just use the dosage it recommends on the container. NOT sea salt, aquarium salt.

Washed out color, lethargy, and heavy breathing are typically signs of oxygen intake issues. This could be a result of high ammonia, high nitrites, lack of surface agitation, or other chemicals such as chlorine and chloramine. If youre using tap water be sure to use a water conditioner EVERY time you put water in the tank. PRIME is a great product. I keep my Cichla in ph in the range of 8-8.2 or so. Ph is likely not the issue if the fish suddenly became ill. Unless you recently did something to drastically change the ph.

If all your water parameters are ok, do a 25-50% water change every other day and see if that brings them around.

 

[troutking]

95 degrees? isn't that too high? I'd say 86 range should be ok, no need to go that hot...just my opinion

yea meant that dont know y i put that brain fart

 

[arowfan]

lol i was like are you gonna make some cichla stew or something? j/k =p
mmm...i'm hungry now!

 

[SpeshulEd]

I had this problem as well. I started with 2 mono's and 4 orino's. I'm now down to 1 orino. All of the fish came from high ph water - around 7.5 and thats what they went into in my tank. This is high, but the fish were definitely acclimated to it, considering the monos came from an LFS and the orinos came from Rich in SoCal.

The problem happened one at a time. I'd wake up and feed them in the morning and one wouldn't eat. I'd get home from work and he'd be breathing hard. The next morning, he'd be dead.

I asked the same question on here as you and got various answers involving water temp, parameters, etc. I can assure you, my parameters were spot on, the tank received 50% water changes weekly, the temp was around 85/f and I had two air stones in the tank. I even took one fish out and put him in a hospital tank.

I've yet to figure out what killed my fish. When only one was left, I just tossed it in another tank and stopped caring. The temp in that tank is around 80. I stopped offering him special care, however, I still do try to feed him twice a day, but other than, I just keep up with my water changes. He's now been in there around a month. He shows no signs of ick or any other disease. However, he did jump out of the tank once when I was feeding him. He literally jumped right into my lap.

The best answer anyone gave me was the guy at the LFS. He said that bacteria will grow much faster in warmer water. So even though my water was fine when tested, the bacteria wouldn't show up on the test and was probably still killing my fish.

So with that, I'd say my advice would be to put them in their own tank or a quarantine tank that is smaller. Drop the temp to around 80-82 and see what happens. If you start to see signs of ick, at least this way it'll be easy to raise the temp back up and medicate for that.