Heavy & Laboured Breathing

Purplepraze

New Member
Jun 8, 2016
1
0
1
Reading, UK.
I've a number of different species of plecs that have been happily sharing a tank now for the best part of a year now. I introduced a 2" blue phantom to the tank 5 days ago (Saturday). Silly mistake but after moving furniture but I forgot to plug the heater back in for 24 hours from Sunday night to the Monday night. Monday night all the plecs were out in the open on top of the rocks and not underneath them as they normally are. Was this down to the drop in temperature? The green phantom was stuck on the glass relatively near the surface alongside the newly introduced blue which had been displaying this behaviour since its introduction. That Monday night the heater was back on and I did my weekly 20% water change (50/50 RO/Cond. tap water). Changed filter wool, carbon granules and added normal amount of bacteria balls and did a 2 week filter head clean through.
Tuesday morning temperature back to normal but Tuesday night green phantom 4" was dead. Colombian snowball & King Tiger plecs were constantly fanning themselves on rocks and still up on the glass was the blue (not normal daytime behaviour in my tank).
Water litmus tested and all parameters okay. Decided on a 50% water change out of part caution and part desperation on the Wednesday night.
Thursday night blue phantom pleco is dead. Water test all parameters okay. Para pleco is now up on the glass along with snowball and king tiger still displaying what seem to be heavy breathing problems particularly the king tiger.
Has the blue bought in something? Any ideas and what can I do, I'm worried more will go in the days to come. Please help with any advice.
 

blinkywcd

Member
Jun 20, 2010
22
0
1
Sydney
Hi, is your tank well oxygenated ? warm water has less oxygen content and can kill fish quickly. your water parameter's can all be within required tolerances but water to warm can cause big problems. what is the temperature in your tank ?
I gather you checked Nitrite and Nitrate and they were all ok ?
I'm lucky I do not have to utilise heaters where I live so my water temp only changes one or two degrees, every now and then I need to cool the water down a little. Hope everything gets sorted for you soon.
 

dw1305

Global Moderators
Staff member
May 5, 2009
1,396
0
36
Wiltshire nr. Bath, UK
Hi all,
I'm sorry to hear about your problems. It sounds more like a water quality issue, rather than temperature, although the low temperature may have stressed the fish.

All sorts of water quality issues often manifest in terms of lower than optimal water oxygenation. We have an article: <"Aeration and dissolved oxygenation...."> which covers this whole area. I may be biased but I would really strongly recommend every-one who keep fish to read it.
Decided on a 50% water change out of part caution and part desperation on the Wednesday night.
A water change was a good idea, but there is a possibility that you may have emergency chloramine dosing in your water supply. If there are new build houses? or water main works? in your local area this is very likely.

Even with a water conditioner like "Prime" you will get lower oxygen levels with chloramine dosing.
Water litmus tested and all parameters okay. ........Changed filter wool, carbon granules and added normal amount of bacteria balls
You shouldn't need carbon, filter floss or "bacteria balls" once the filter is established, what filter media do you have in your filter body?

cheers Darrel