Plecos breathing heavily-PLEASE HELP

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A

aceface562

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 6, 2011
231
18
33
Los Angeles
so i noticed last night that some of my plecos are breathing rapidly and heavily.

i have a pretty nice collection of pseudos and kind of worried as to why they are breathing the way they are.

i keep them in a 60 gallon tank with one fx5 as filtration and a large dw.

the water parameters are at 0 across the board for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate with 30-40% wc weekly.

any ideas as to why they are breathing hard? could it be over feeding? lack of oxygen? should i throw in a airstone? i figured an fx5 should be more than enough filtration and flow in a 60 gallon?

Please advise.
 
My L600 breathes heavily after a good feeding. Throw in an airstone, wouldn't hurt.
 
What are you using to dechlorinate your water while doing water changes? On the east coast, there are problems where water companies will switch from using chlorine to chloramine without notifying customers (this happens in the spring/fall, or after a lot of rain). Supposedly Prime will neutralize both; maybe you're using something that only neutralizes chlorine, or only partially neutralizes chloramine and so there is chlorine burn?

Also, do you have gravel/substrate? Some people think that the lack of gravel/substrate can lead to some problems for the fish (but this is more for fry). Something about the increased surface area of substrate helps. There's been several threads on this in planetcatfish.
 
Warmer temps require bubbles. Over filtering is no substitute for wc! And you shouldn't be reading 0ppm nitrates if ur tank is cycled.




Go S. Vettel #1 rb8
 
Linus_Cello said:
What are you using to dechlorinate your water while doing water changes? On the east coast, there are problems where water companies will switch from using chlorine to chloramine without notifying customers (this happens in the spring/fall, or after a lot of rain). Supposedly Prime will neutralize both; maybe you're using something that only neutralizes chlorine, or only partially neutralizes chloramine and so there is chlorine burn?

Also, do you have gravel/substrate? Some people think that the lack of gravel/substrate can lead to some problems for the fish (but this is more for fry). Something about the increased surface area of substrate helps. There's been several threads on this in planetcatfish.
Click to expand...

I'm using prime to chlorinate out here in the west coast. i have sand as substrate.

thanks,
 
Make sure you FX5 outlets are at or above the surface of the water to create as much agitation as possible and a circular current that reaches the bottom of the tank. If there are to many obstacles for a good current and air stone or a hydor.
 
F1 VET said:
Warmer temps require bubbles. Over filtering is no substitute for wc! And you shouldn't be reading 0ppm nitrates if ur tank is cycled.




Go S. Vettel #1 rb8
Click to expand...
I agree 100%
 
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