dragonz1833 Posted January 1, 2011 Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 MY FISH ARE BREATHING REALLY REALLY FAST AND LOOKS AS THOUGH STRUGGLING HELP 095768627 NATHAN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 1, 2011 Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 Check that the temperature is not too hot and if that is OK you might need to treat for gill flukes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonz1833 Posted January 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 what are gill flukes one of my sharkes is dieing he cant swim properly or nothing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 1, 2011 Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 What is the water temperature? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonz1833 Posted January 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonz1833 Posted January 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 just finished doing 25% water change Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 1, 2011 Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 Is their respiration rated slowing up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonz1833 Posted January 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 no its not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 1, 2011 Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 Can you test the water to see if you have an ammonia or nitrite spike? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 1, 2011 Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 If water temperature and chemistry is OK you may need to treat for gill flukes (dactylogyrus). Do a google search and see what treatments you have available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted January 1, 2011 Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 put an air stone in a corner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted January 1, 2011 Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 If its only just happened I would expect an ammonia spike (often happens in the evenings more than during the day). Test the water this morning, test the water late this evening. Water changes and an airline will help if its this otherwise as Alanmin says it could be gill flukes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted January 1, 2011 Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 I would suspect ammonia spike too, do lots of water changes and hope it helps. From memory ammonia burns the gills so the fish may breath fast for because of that, or they may be too far gone already to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flosty Posted January 1, 2011 Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 Water change atleast 50 % and add an airstone like others have said already Make sure the water surface is is really moving from the bubbles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snookie Posted January 1, 2011 Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 also has any fly spray etc.. been sprayed near ? , waterchange etc.... good luck 8) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 If its only just happened I would expect an ammonia spike (often happens in the evenings more than during the day). Test the water this morning, test the water late this evening. Water changes and an airline will help if its this otherwise as Alanmin says it could be gill flukes. Interested to know why you say ammonia spikes happen more often in the evening? I thought Ammonia has to build up, bacteria need time to break solid waste down into ammonia, and fish continually excrete it. Also not sure how an air line helps with ammonia, I understand it might put a little more O2 in the water, but the problem the fish not being able to use it because of burnt gills, and being unable to excrete there own ammonia, not lack of O2. If ammonia is the suspected issue, the best course of action is either cycle or ammo lock (or a similar product), both will covert the ammonia to non toxic ammonium. The next best option is water changes. Most good LFS's will test your water for you, often for free, at the moment your playing a guessing game, If you have some cycle etc dump it in cause it can't hurt, and get your water tested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Also not sure how an air line helps with ammonia, I understand it might put a little more O2 in the water, but the problem the fish not being able to use it because of burnt gills, and being unable to excrete there own ammonia, not lack of O2. With any respiratory distress, regardless of the cause, O2 (oxygen) is an important supportive treatment. In this case, the burned gills will be less efficient from overproduction of protective mucous so the surface area for gas exchange is minimised, thus you want water with a higher percentage of oxygen to be flowing over the available surfaces in the gills so that the fish can get enough oxygen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Water has a greater affinity for oxygen than CO2 or NH3 so aeration will also help to drive off the latter two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Lowering excess CO2 with water movement is pretty well known, but I haven't heard of removing ammonia this way before, do you have any information on how this works? Here's a link to some simple information about ammonia http://theaquariumwiki.com/Ammonia And information on ammo lock http://cms.marsfishcare.com/files/scien ... .1.081.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Both ammonia and carbon dioxide behave in a similar way in water. CO2 dissolves to form a relatively unstable acid--carbonic acid and ammonia dissolves to form a relatively unstable alkali--ammonium hydroxide. They will both revert to the gasseous state relavely easily with a rise in temperature, agitation or allowing oxygen to take their place. This will not replace all the gas that is dissolved but will reduce it in both cases. The problem with the use of ammolock is that it locks up the ammonia and therefore destroys the equilibrium between the good bacteria and their food source, so that as the bacteria die off from a lack of food an ammonia spike is likely later when the bacteria have all died or been reduced but the fish are still producing ammonia/urea etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Ammo lock doesn't 'lock' ammonia, just changes the balance so there is more non-toxic ionized ammonium (NH4) which still produces a reading on most test kits and can still be utilized by bacteria as a food source just as ammonia would. If this wasn't the case then fish keepers that use products like Cycle would never cycle their filters. Ammonia and carbon dioxide may behave in a similar fashion, but how readily this happens is relevant, if ammonia 'de-gassed' as readily as CO2 then household cleaners would have a very short shelf life and I assume be pretty dangerous to keep in a cupboard. It's like how quickly a bottle of opened coke will go flat compared to how quickly a bottle of window cleaner will loose it's strength Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 A bottle of coke with a lid on will not degass any differently to a bottle of ammonium hydroxide with a lid on. I have never used ammolock and am not sure how it works so you may well be right about the nitrogen still being available for the bacteria. It is likely that they utilize it in the ionic state only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Coke once opened will go flat in a few days, or at least with-in a few weeks. Windows cleaner will last years with out loosing strength. Also oxygen and carbon dioxide reach a saturation level where you just can't add it faster than it will de-gas, because ammonia doesn't de-gas anywhere near as fast the levels keep building, if they didn't then it wouldn't ever be a problem in fish tanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Coke has the CO2 added under pressure but the ammonium hydroxide (in whatever form) does not. When you smell ammonium hydroxide it is the ammonia dissolving in the moisture in your nose and forming ammonium hydroxide that you are detecting therefore it must be evapourating from the solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Coke has the CO2 added under pressure Because it de-gases so fast, it's needs to be stored under pressure as well for the same reason. Window cleaner on the other hand... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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