Heavy Breathing

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SpeshulEd

Fire Eel
MFK Member
I kind of feel like an idiot here, I thought I was better than this, but I don't want to lose another fish, so I thought I'd ask for some help.

I bought two baby monos about two weeks ago, shortly after I received 4 orinos from Rick. The monos were from a lfs. They seemed fairly healthy from what I can tell and were eating frozen bloodworms. Ricks were slightly bigger when i got them and are eating pellets. They're all in a 55g with a common pleco.

Last week, the smallest mono started breathing heavy and then died about a day later. I should have done more for him, but just left it be. Now my other mono seems to be developing the same problem. He was fine last night, I fed him some blood worms, and while feeding him, he started breathing heavy and then stopped eating. This morning he was still breathing heavy, he ate a few bloodworms but not the normal amount.

The tank temp is at 85f, weekly 50% water changes - changed on friday, and all my parameters seem ok
636740980_PA9Sm-M.jpg


Nitrates around 20, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 7.5 ph - which I know is high, but thats the southwest, which is where the lfs is located and where Rick is located. Everyone eats twice a day, hikari frozen bloodworms and hikari cichlid gold. the bloodworms are thawed in a cup of tank water before feeding.

Anyway, I just setup a 20g and transferred an hob filter. I set the temp at 86 and am gonna transfer the mono here in a second. Should I add salt or do anything else?
 
salt helps, what kind of filtration are you running? plenty of air? with higher temps you need more aeration.
 
85???????/ it should only be that high if you are trying to rid your tank of ick or something like that. i would lower it to around 81. it is harder for them to breathe at higher temps. there is less oxygen in the water at higher temps. lower your water level until the temp is lowered. or add more oxygen into the tank
 
gacericardo;3419662; said:
85???????/ it should only be that high if you are trying to rid your tank of ick or something like that. i would lower it to around 81. it is harder for them to breathe at higher temps. there is less oxygen in the water at higher temps. lower your water level until the temp is lowered. or add more oxygen into the tank

I disagree with the underlined text. Maybe its just me and I suck at keeping cichla but from my experience as soon as the water goes under 82*ish they start to develop ich. All my tanks are 84*-86*.

I agree with the rest though. Higher temps means you need more oxygen.
 
Yeah, I've read about higher temps to save them from ick.

I have bubblers in the tank as well to provide oxygen and had an emperor 400 and an old tetra pf300 on the tank. The tetra is now on the 20g that he's in by himself. Also, he's not near the top of the tank. Kinda hanging near the bottom by some flake plants.

I'm wondering if its not some kind of intestinal blockade from the bloodworms or something.

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gacericardo;3419662; said:
85???????/ it should only be that high if you are trying to rid your tank of ick or something like that. i would lower it to around 81. it is harder for them to breathe at higher temps. there is less oxygen in the water at higher temps. lower your water level until the temp is lowered. or add more oxygen into the tank
i disagree....u should keep it that high or else they start getting ich...everytime my temp drops to like 80 they get ich.....but i do agree that u need to add more oxygen via air pump or something else
 
my temp is set and stays at 82.6. and i meant to say 82 not 81. they have had no ick problems since i dropped the temp after getting rid of the ick. Just how my cichla live. they seem to be doing great and it looks as if they arent breathing. everything is pretty easy for them.
 
There are air pumps in the tank. The orinos are fine, its just the monos that I've had trouble with.

I'm positive they don't have ick, they look very healthy, and other than the heavy breathing and not eating that much, the mono acts like the rest of them.

He's in his own tank now, with a bubbler as well. I'm going to lower the temp down to around 83 tonight and see what happens. Like I said, he's not up near the top gasping, just breathing hard.
 
jimmie1974;3420278; said:
I personally think your PH is too high looking at it compared to that chart its next to, its almost off the chart.
If his PH is 7.5 it is not really that high. Cichlas should be kept at about 86-88 anyways. It wards off diseases and other health problems common in juvenile cichla.
 
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