Rapid mouth/gill movements and not eating. Specific gravity is way too high! (PLEASE HELP)

[greatestgrandma]

Hello everyone. I am very new to this hobby and I am about to lose all of my fish. I currently have a 50 gallon tank with 4 fish (i had 5 yesterday but one sadly passed). I have been keeping up with water changes but I have been dealing with cyano for the past few weeks. On sunday, I did a normal water change but I had used salt and bottled spring water instead of the bottled saltwater I was using prior to making my own saltwater. I checked the gravity of the saltwater I had made and it was just fine but when I put it into my tank, it increased the gravity way too much. I have been decreasing the gravity little by little with bottled spring water as I do not have any RO water. (sorry for the stupidity). Is there ANYTHING I can do to save my fish? It may be a little too late to help them but if there's anything I can do to help, them please let me know. As I mentioned before, I am completely new to this and I am still in the process of learning things. I also forgot to mention, I got my fish from a family friend of mine who had to get rid of them so I do not know how old they are. I will admit I was extremely stupid for not doing more research prior to getting them but our family friend had to give them away asap. If there's anything I can do to save them, that'd be wonderful but I don't think they'll make it through the day if I don't do something asap!

 

[CindyKz]

How high was the specific gravity in your tank after the water change?

What makes you certain you are going to lose them? Do the remaining fish have symptoms? If so, what are they?

ETA, sorry I just recalled the title. Ok, rapid mouth and breathing, and not eating. For how long?

 

[greatestgrandma]

How high was the specific gravity in your tank after the water change?

What makes you certain you are going to lose them? Do the remaining fish have symptoms? If so, what are they?

ETA, sorry I just recalled the title. Ok, rapid mouth and breathing, and not eating. For how long?

The specific gravity in my tank after the water change was 1.030 and currently 1.028. All of my fish had rapid mouth and breathing other than my coral beauty angelfish since yesterday morning. All of my fish were eating other than the one that died last night but right now, all four of them are not eating and breathing rapidly.

 

[CindyKz]

You can adjust the salinity downward fast normally but since your fish have already had to tolerate one swing I would keep adjusting slowly to your normal salinity.

I don't know if there is a treatment for osmotic shock (which is what happens when salinity is raised too quickly) so you should check the fish disease and treatment forum for that information.

 

[cmoore806]

how are your other parameters? like Ammonia?

 

[brandon429]

also post a full picture shot of the tank too, we get unspoken details from those

 

[Bosreef]

Imo does not sound like a salt issue. You say you got the fish from a family friend, when and how did you introduce these fish to your system? If you just dumped all five fish i would lean towards amonia poison.

 

[tsouth]

I am in agreement with Bosreef. SG of 1.030 is not that bad. Many reefkeepers keep or have kept their salinity at 1.029, I even think Adam @ BattleCorals does.

Tell us more about these fish - What kind of fish are they, what size is your tank, and how did you go about introducing them into the tank? Did you acclimate them?

With regards to the water changes, are you stirring the water, and heating it up as well? Be sure to always check the salinity of the new saltwater so that it matches the tank too.

Best wishes to you <3

 

[greatestgrandma]

You can adjust the salinity downward fast normally but since your fish have already had to tolerate one swing I would keep adjusting slowly to your normal salinity.

I don't know if there is a treatment for osmotic shock (which is what happens when salinity is raised too quickly) so you should check the fish disease and treatment forum for that information.

Thank you!

 

[DeniseAndy]

Welcome. Take a breath. We are going to try to help.

We do need more details on the system. What fish are they? How old is your system? Do you have the ability to get RO/DI? What salt are you using?

 

[greatestgrandma]

how are your other parameters? like Ammonia?

I believe nitrate 200 ppm, nitrite 1.0 ppm, alkalinity 180 ppm, ph is 7.8 (used a tetra easystrip)

 

[Bosreef]

I believe nitrate 200 ppm, nitrite 1.0 ppm, alkalinity 180 ppm, ph is 7.8 (used a tetra easystrip)

There we go.
NITRITE which means you are not cycled or going through mini cycle due to increased bio load.

**Disclaimer not 100 percent without more info

 

[tsouth]

Had to check the easy strips - 200ppm is indeed a value on there.

You will need to do an incredibly large water change to bring this down to safer levels. I would start by getting it down to 50ppm which is two 50% water changes back to back.

*Please wait to see what other advice users give before doing the above*

 

[DeniseAndy]

Nitrite is not a good sign if that number is valid. It means you had ammonia in the tank and it cannot yet break it down. Means your bacteria population is not fully ready. Cycling still.
We still need more. Pictures are good if you can, if not, tell us more about fish and what happened with tank lately, ever, etc.

 

[greatestgrandma]

also post a full picture shot of the tank too, we get unspoken details from those

I cleared out the majority of the cyano on Sunday but that has also been a problem I've been trying to fix.

 

[greatestgrandma]

Nitrite is not a good sign if that number is valid. It means you had ammonia in the tank and it cannot yet break it down. Means your bacteria population is not fully ready. Cycling still.
We still need more. Pictures are good if you can, if not, tell us more about fish and what happened with tank lately, ever, etc.

After my water change on Sunday, the specific gravity increased tremendously and that's when I started seeing the rapid mouth/gill movements. The fish that died last night was not eating yesterday (the others were) and my remaining fish are not eating today. I have been dealing with cyano for a few weeks now but I have not solved the problem yet. The salt I used was the Instant Ocean Sea Salt. I have the three fish in the photo I posted and one coral beauty angelfish.

 

[greatestgrandma]

After my water change on Sunday, the specific gravity increased tremendously and that's when I started seeing the rapid mouth/gill movements. The fish that died last night was not eating yesterday (the others were) and my remaining fish are not eating today. I have been dealing with cyano for a few weeks now but I have not solved the problem yet. The salt I used was the Instant Ocean Sea Salt. I have the three fish in the photo I posted and one coral beauty angelfish.

Welcome. Take a breath. We are going to try to help.

We do need more details on the system. What fish are they? How old is your system? Do you have the ability to get RO/DI? What salt are you using?

I bought and set up my system 2 months ago. I was using store bought bottled saltwater prior to making the switch and I am now using Instant Ocean Sea Salt with bottled spring water. I currently do not have access to RO/DI.

 

[Aqua Man]

Did use any chemiclean for cyano? Was the new saltwater mixed for a few hrs at least before water change?

 

[DeniseAndy]

Well, this tank should not be in a cycle unless you had a huge die off somewhere. What is your filtration? Powerheads? Protein skimmer? Etc.
Looks like tang and angel and clown that can be seen. The angel and tang will be tough in a 50g long run.
You could very well have a oxygen issue.

 

[BrandonS]

I am not sure bottled spring water will work as they usually add stuff in for flavor. Also what are you using for auto top off to make up for evaporation?