What Makes A Fish Breath Fast?

[reddogf5]

I have three fish waiting out QT, they had a week of ramp, 2 weeks at 2.5 PPM copper, and are in week 2 of observation, waiting for the fallow period for the DT to end. The tang is breathing fast, at least it looks like it to me. I added an airstone to the tank on the off chance it is low O2.
What else would cause him to breath fast? I would hope it's not ich, as that is why they are in QT.

 

[Joe's Coral Reef]

High ammonia can cause rapid breathing. Especially in qt because many times we dont have a good nitrifying cycle established.

 

[BradB]

What makes humans breath fast? Excursion, lack of oxygen, disease.

Hard to tell which and how to fix it, but excursion is the easiest. If the tang wasn't swimming frantically, you can rule that out.

Lack of oxygen is harder, the airstone was a good idea. Unfortunately, could be cyanide, carbon monoxide or similar.

Disease can be even harder to identify.

I think you are doing about all you can. Unfortunately, some fish just don't make it.

 

[BradB]

High ammonia can cause rapid breathing. Especially in qt because many times we dont have a good nitrifying cycle established.

Good idea. I'd do an ammonia test right away if you haven't. Yank the airstone if it is significantly positive.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I have three fish waiting out QT, they had a week of ramp, 2 weeks at 2.5 PPM copper, and are in week 2 of observation, waiting for the fallow period for the DT to end. The tang is breathing fast, at least it looks like it to me. I added an airstone to the tank on the off chance it is low O2.
What else would cause him to breath fast? I would hope it's not ich, as that is why they are in QT.

Can you get the actual respiration rate for your tang? I’ve got a lot of respiration rate data compiled over many years, I can give you at least some idea as to how serious the issue is, relatively speaking. Just count the gill beats for 15 seconds and multiply by 4. Do it a few times and average the results. I also need to know the size of the tang and the water temperature. Ich doesn’t cause rapid breathing until later stages, but velvet does. Water quality is of course another possibility.
Jay

 

[reddogf5]

Mr. Tang seems to be breathing normally this morning, I think it might have been low O2. There is Matrix media in this tank, and I added some ammonia at the set up when the fish went into another tank for medication. I also added some turbstart900 this week, which probably started consuming oxygen along with ammonia. It has one of those indicator tags in it, which fluctuates between yellow and green. Thanks for the help!

 

[reddogf5]

Can you get the actual respiration rate for your tang? I’ve got a lot of respiration rate data compiled over many years, I can give you at least some idea as to how serious the issue is, relatively speaking. Just count the gill beats for 15 seconds and multiply by 4. Do it a few times and average the results. I also need to know the size of the tang and the water temperature. Ich doesn’t cause rapid breathing until later stages, but velvet does. Water quality is of course another possibility.
Jay

I got my daughter to do this, she counted 55 in 15 seconds, so 220 a minute. This was while he was swimming around eating nori, if that makes a difference.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I got my daughter to do this, she counted 55 in 15 seconds, so 220 a minute. This was while he was swimming around eating nori, if that makes a difference.

That is way to fast, either a mistake with the count, or some serious issue. What is the rate now that the fish has improved?
Jay

 

[reddogf5]

I just tried to count, looking at his gills, I counted 17, so maybe 20 in 15 seconds if I missed some - 68 to80 per minute. It is hard to count, because if he notices you watching, he hides, I don't think he likes PVC pipes and misses the rock.