Fish breathing very fast

[NFS0331]

do any of the fish besides the clown (clarkii?) have white marks on their bodies, like they got stung? I notice you have a carpet anemone (stychodactyla). They have potent stings for fish other than clowns that will host with them -- and such stings could cause shock/rapid breathing/death. Though usually that happens faster than seems to be suggested here, and most often fish that get stung get stuck and eaten. Frankly, having lost some expensive fish to st anemones in the past ($75 purple tank, large butterfly of some sort (don't recall sp)), I won't house such anemone again

None of the fish have white spots on them, the carpet only have the clowns around it , and ok good it’s not an idol, I am still learning the names and stuff

 

[tangtime]

Could be lack of oxygen in the water. Do you have a skimmer and refugium or Sump? Do the powerhead break the surface of the water a bit?

 

[NFS0331]

Yes I have 2 big power heads and I also have air pump there in the mean time to see if it will make a different

 

[norfolkgarden]

The beautiful butterfly fish is listed as NO under reef safe on LiveAquaria.

A lot of times WITH CAUTION means "heck no, but we will let you figure it out for yourself."

I swear WITH CAUTION is one of those things like on Impractical Jokers where the 4 guys spend half the show nudging each other and laughing.

A NO is worse.
[emoji53]

The tank looks nice with a decent amount of live rock.

How many months has it had water in it?

An ammonia spike would have been the easiest guess to your problem of all fish looking like they are hyperventilating.
Since you have 2 tests from different sources confirming 0, that is a partial relief.
An ammonia badge stuck in your tank for the first year would be cheap insurance and very good money spent.

Since it's not ammonia and the fish bioload seems managable then that kind of brings it back to some type of parasite.

Unless it's the anemone?
Usually 'nems are not recommended before a year of a tank being set up.

God knows I push the limits every chance I get, but some of them are pretty important.

How are things looking today?

 

[NFS0331]

The beautiful butterfly fish is listed as NO under reef safe on LiveAquaria.

A lot of times WITH CAUTION means "heck no, but we will let you figure it out for yourself."

I swear WITH CAUTION is one of those things like on Impractical Jokers where the 4 guys spend half the show nudging each other and laughing.

A NO is worse.
[emoji53]

The tank looks nice with a decent amount of live rock.

How many months has it had water in it?

An ammonia spike would have been the easiest guess to your problem of all fish looking like they are hyperventilating.
Since you have 2 tests from different sources confirming 0, that is a partial relief.
An ammonia badge stuck in your tank for the first year would be cheap insurance and very good money spent.

Since it's not ammonia and the fish bioload seems managable then that kind of brings it back to some type of parasite.

Unless it's the anemone?
Usually 'nems are not recommended before a year of a tank being set up.

God knows I push the limits every chance I get, but some of them are pretty important.

How are things looking today?

Thanks for the awesome reply! I didn’t know that caution might be bad I also have this ammonia sticker too and I love it . Water been in the tank for few months I do change like 10% or water on the regular bases. I didn’t know I can’t have corals for the first year cus I have ton of corals lol
I only have 3 anemone. This morning they still breath fast so I got another kit and the other kit show there is some nitates in there like 20ppm so I was like hmmm that might be the reason. But even before when I used to have everything 0 they were still breathing hard so I don’t get it. I was trying to look closer at the fish to see if there is any sign of parasite like cloudy eyes or white spots or anything. Nothing they all look pretty and healthy to me... so I am not sure what the next step is. I did some water change to get rid some of the nitrates and I also changed the filters and the carbon and everything as well.

 

[NFS0331]

Also when the fish isn’t reef safe or under monitor? What can possibly happen??

 

[Fishfinder]

I think you should do a lot of research before you decide to add anything else to that tank

 

[thejuice24]

Also when the fish isn’t reef safe or under monitor? What can possibly happen??

Tough question to answer but generally they might nip at hard corals or straight up eat soft corals. They may also go after invertebrates (shrimp, crabs, snails and etc). The animal may also be aggressive towards other fish. There’s a lot of information on these forums where you can find compatibility breakdowns of different species of fish and their general species reef compatibility. I say that because, in my experience that compatibility can be also a general guidance. Some species of fish have personalities all their own and it can very from fish to fish. So learning your fish personality also helps in this hobby as well.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Could be a number of things:

Parameters
Age of tank
Parasites or flukes
low oxygen
Excess feeding

Think about and investigate each of these and create process of elimination

 

[code4]

I noticed you said you have two power heads. Are either of them pointed towards the surface? To help rule out low oxygen levels one should be breaking the surface.

 

[curiouser]

Is there a top on your tank which is blocking air flow to surface? Is there good air flow getting to surface?
If you have a skimmer turning it on can increase oxygenation of the water.
Good luck

 

[norfolkgarden]

Sooo

Decent amount of dry(?) rock. Think you said about 100 pounds.
It looks like my dry rock did when I first put it in.

My dry rock took 3 months to stop being white. Went through a crazy hair algae phase and then after everywhere there was hair algae the purple encrusting coralline grew best.

If it is live rock it should cycle months faster. The dry rock goes through multiple phases before it finally settles in.

The ammonia badge is clear and you have had 2 tests so far that show the worst thing you have is 20 on nitrates. (Mine runs similar or sometimes higher)

I think you said you have 2 power heads and one is pointing towards the surface for surface agitation.

Don't remember if you have a skimmer or a sump.

If you dont have a skimmer
I would add an air stone.
I would add an air stone anyway.

Didn't notice an overflow in the pic. No sump?

We dont have a sump. I work out of town a lot. I don't have "permission" to have water leaks while I'm working 200 miles away.
[emoji23]
Everything is HOB (hang on back) filters and 200 pounds of live rock for filtration in a bare bottom tank.
Mostly fish and soft corals that don't bleach out if parameters take a short dip or I start the trip with the salinity down at 1.022 knowing it will creep up to 1.025 by the time I get home.

I haven't spent $2000 on an Apex controller and dosers and ATO and an ro/di unit yet.
Like to fantasize about it, but the fish and softies work fine without it.

You (currently) have a reasonable amount of fish.

The false idol and koran angel (still don't see it in the pic) will both pick at lps and soft corals eventually.

Run an airstone.

How is everything doing now?

 

[rosshamsandwich]

need oxygen

 

[Kengar]

How QUICKLY did you build up the current stock level? I wonder whether you did so too fast and fishes’ gills were damaged by excess ammonia. So while levels might be good NOW, perhaps they were at levels that were harmful to fish for a while previously/

 

[alishahlakhani]

Check ammonia levels. Ammonia can burn gills, so do the gills look red?
Edit -just saw you listed 0 ammonia


Any powdery appearance to the fish, swimming into powerhead flow, hiding, scratching against rocks or substrate?

Pics of the fish?

Hi, It seems like my fish has the problem here. My ammonia is 0 but my nitrites are high(>5.0 ppm) and nitrates are 6ppm

Any idea what's wrong with my fish?
I have other fish in tank too. she seems to be fine and they seem to be bullying each other. I see the fish which is gasping for air has a bitten fin.
I have lots of surface agitation in tank.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ammonia and low oxygen Will generally affect more than one tank occupation. Yours sounds like flukes or parasites that are irritating the gills and causing rapid breathing.
What fish is it and is it:
Darting ?
Scratching ?
Eating?

 

[alishahlakhani]

No actually nothing as such.
I got them 2 weeks back. They don't eat when I put food in the tank but I assume they have been eating when lights are low else how can they survive. Maybe it's just me freaking out.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Moved to fish disease forum for more eyes on this