Fish breathing heavy

[Drauka99]

Fish went through ttm and prazipro treatment several weeks ago. Moved to a holding system. All was well till this morning the firefish was acting wierd swimming all over. Now everyone is breathing heavy. Did a 14 gallon water change and added prime but still breathing heavy. The 2 ammonia badges both read 0. Tested for voltage and got nothing.
Tang was weak and laid over so I moved him to a 5 gallon bucket of new water I had mixed. No change in symptoms.


Ideas?

 

[jsker]

[HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG] @Humblefish @melypr1985

 

[michellejy]

I have noticed my ammonia badge stays yellow, even with high levels of ammonia. You might want to do an actual ammonia test, although the water change and prime will obviously help if that was the issue.

 

[michellejy]

As an example, this was my ammonia test on an empty quarantine that I am feeding to cycle. The badge is still bright yellow.

 

[Drauka99]

Ammonia tested twice after water change and prime and both readings were 0 on the API test.

All fish but kole seem to be acting normal now. The Kole is in the bucket but is still breathing heavy. I have a small powerhead in the bucket for surface agitation and added a small splash or prime there too.

 

[fry_school101]

Maybe a FW dip to check for flukes to see if some made it through? Can you elaborate on the QT process that they went through already?

 

[Drauka99]

They went through a full TTM and on the last transfer I added prazipro, they then went through 2 more transfers of 3 days each with another treatment of Prazipro then they were all moved to a 40 breeder and sump system that was setup and cycled . So basically TTM and a half. I have had them in the holding tank system for over a month now and everything has been fine till today.

 

[michellejy]

You said, "they were all." How many and what types of fish are in quarantine? What do you have for filtration and aeration?

 

[Drauka99]

1 kole
1 coral beauty
1 Lyretail anthias
2 perculas
1 ruby red dragonet
I firefish



The Kole is gone. All the rest seem to be breathing and acting normal now.

 

[Drauka99]

They are in a 40 breeder with a 20 sump. About 50 gallons total volume. 50lbs live rock
Asm g3 skimmer and a 500gph return

3 hydor 425gph powerheads set to be always on.

 

[melypr1985]

Were there any other symptoms with the Kole? Any changes in appearance or behavior besides the heavy breathing?

 

[Drauka99]

Only thing that looked different was the base of the anal fin and base of the tail looked whiter that normal. Could have been stress related but the rest of the body was still dark.

 

[melypr1985]

It's difficult to diagnose something after the fact like this. I'd bet there was something going on with him that caused the stress and quick death. Keep a close eye on the rest of the fish.

 

[Drauka99]

Just did another 14 gallon water change just as a safeguard. All the rest are acting normal now. Very wierd situation.

 

[Humblefish]

Any possibility that a toxin (bug spray) or contaminate (cleaner) got into the water?

 

[Drauka99]

Not likely.

My only far fetched guess is I added on extra peice of dry rock to the system almost a week ago but I washed it well before putting it in the tank. And it could have had something on it but that is very very unlikely