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This may be a cautionary tail rather than a question. If your fish are breathing fast (100 gill movements per minute is fast), you may be tempted to increase surface tension to promote oxygen exchange. Before you do that, triple check that ammonia test.
It can't be ammonia
Today I noticed some of my fish in QT were breathing fast. I knew ammonia can cause this, but I had just done a water test the night before and recorded 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite and 5ppm nitrate. Last week I did some large water changes because nitrates had hit 20+ppm, probably from me trying different seaweeds to get my new (1 week ago) foxface and tomini tang to eat their veg. Nitrates only come from nitrifying bacteria (I think), so if they hit 20ppm the tank (which as been up for almost 2 months), must surely be well cycled -- it can't be ammonia. Last week I did read between 0 and 0.25 ppm ammonia and 0.25ppm nitrite when nitrates hit 20ppm, but I had just added 4 fish and probably over-fed. Two 25% water changes over two days had fixed that, right?
Surface tension/O2
This 39g QT only has a HOB for water movement and it has a cover. "They must not be getting enough oxygen," I thought. I turned on two powerheads near the surface I had used for coral QT. They were a bit overpowered for fish QT, but they sure did get the surface moving. No dice. I added an airstone, but after a few hours their breathing just seemed to be getting worse.
Flukes?
I even convinced myself it was gill flukes and fw-dipped my wrasse. He has a white bump on his eye, which I think is a Capsalidae (relative of a fluke). But 36h of PraziPro hadn't work on it. "He must also have prazi-resistent gill flukes, and they've spread to to the foxface, who is also breathing fast," I told myself.
It's probably ammonia and I may have killed all my fish in QT.
Anyway, I decided to do yet another water test tonight and ammonia came up 0.25. The greenish yellow (0ppm) and yellowish green (0.25ppm) on the API test kit aren't vividly distinct from each other, so I think I must have mis-read yesterday's ammonia test. I saw nitrates, so I didn't look to hard at the other two. But today I did an ammonia test on my DT as well to compare them side-by-side, and the QT is definitely closer to 0.25ppm (the DT is clearly 0ppm).
Don't aerate that ammonium!
As many of you probably know, you're not supposed to drip-acclimate mail order fish because the less toxic ammonium that builds up with less oxygen but quickly converts to gill-burning ammonia when you open the bag. I think that's what I did to my QT when I turned on the powerheads. The tank has a glass cover, the HOB has a cover and relatively low flow. I suspect low oxygen was suppressing the worst effects of the ammonia, and my aeration "opened the bag". I've done another 40% water change just now, but I expect I'll need some tartar sauce by morning.
Takeaway
It's always the simple things -- don't get bogged down in complicated causes before really, truly ruling out the simple ones.
Question
Does that all sound plausible to anyone? Or might I really have Prazi-resisitent gill flukes or something else?
It can't be ammonia
Today I noticed some of my fish in QT were breathing fast. I knew ammonia can cause this, but I had just done a water test the night before and recorded 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite and 5ppm nitrate. Last week I did some large water changes because nitrates had hit 20+ppm, probably from me trying different seaweeds to get my new (1 week ago) foxface and tomini tang to eat their veg. Nitrates only come from nitrifying bacteria (I think), so if they hit 20ppm the tank (which as been up for almost 2 months), must surely be well cycled -- it can't be ammonia. Last week I did read between 0 and 0.25 ppm ammonia and 0.25ppm nitrite when nitrates hit 20ppm, but I had just added 4 fish and probably over-fed. Two 25% water changes over two days had fixed that, right?
Surface tension/O2
This 39g QT only has a HOB for water movement and it has a cover. "They must not be getting enough oxygen," I thought. I turned on two powerheads near the surface I had used for coral QT. They were a bit overpowered for fish QT, but they sure did get the surface moving. No dice. I added an airstone, but after a few hours their breathing just seemed to be getting worse.
Flukes?
I even convinced myself it was gill flukes and fw-dipped my wrasse. He has a white bump on his eye, which I think is a Capsalidae (relative of a fluke). But 36h of PraziPro hadn't work on it. "He must also have prazi-resistent gill flukes, and they've spread to to the foxface, who is also breathing fast," I told myself.
It's probably ammonia and I may have killed all my fish in QT.
Anyway, I decided to do yet another water test tonight and ammonia came up 0.25. The greenish yellow (0ppm) and yellowish green (0.25ppm) on the API test kit aren't vividly distinct from each other, so I think I must have mis-read yesterday's ammonia test. I saw nitrates, so I didn't look to hard at the other two. But today I did an ammonia test on my DT as well to compare them side-by-side, and the QT is definitely closer to 0.25ppm (the DT is clearly 0ppm).
Don't aerate that ammonium!
As many of you probably know, you're not supposed to drip-acclimate mail order fish because the less toxic ammonium that builds up with less oxygen but quickly converts to gill-burning ammonia when you open the bag. I think that's what I did to my QT when I turned on the powerheads. The tank has a glass cover, the HOB has a cover and relatively low flow. I suspect low oxygen was suppressing the worst effects of the ammonia, and my aeration "opened the bag". I've done another 40% water change just now, but I expect I'll need some tartar sauce by morning.
Takeaway
It's always the simple things -- don't get bogged down in complicated causes before really, truly ruling out the simple ones.
Question
Does that all sound plausible to anyone? Or might I really have Prazi-resisitent gill flukes or something else?