# Fish breathing really fast



## cossie333

3 days ago I bought some finn rot treatment as a couple of my x-ray tetras had a funk out the tips of there tail and the treatment said to take the carbon filter out. This is where it went wrong as before I turned of the filter to doy filter change and water change and one of my hill stream loaches were upside down and my botaia was swimming into thing but I fished
the
out
and thwy are fine
now.but last night
I
noticed my hillstrram loaching breathing reallly really fast and so are all my
other fish but they aren't hanging around the
top like it's and oxygen problem the only thing I can
think of is when I did the water
change maybe the wAter was a bit hot
and their in shock?????

Need help as I'm getting
worrie :-(


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## emc7

Breathing heavy is usually stress, but can also be poor water quality (ammonia or nitrite) or low oxygen or even something like gill-flukes or ich that hurts the ability to use the gills effectively. Taking out carbon takes out some of your filter biology, so mini-cycles are common. Hillstream loaches like cool, high-oxygen, high-current water. So they might get unhappy with things switched off. 

Turn off the lights and check them in the morning.


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## cossie333

They have been breathing heavy for 3 days


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## emc7

ok, thats bad. Look for signs of disease and check everything that could be stressing fsih. Is the temp way off? An aggressive fish acting up? Did you remember dechlor? Did your water company change something? Heater or light making a low-level "zap" in the water? You might look at parasites first because they can affect the gills, but breathing heavy is a pretty generic symptom. It means the fish are unhappy, but it doesn't tell you why.


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## cossie333

No parasites and temp fine can they die of stress


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## cossie333

But I did use kettle water and I had ran out of aqua safe water cleaner stuff


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## emc7

kettle water? Explain? Boiling water makes it safe to drink by killing bacteria, but it won't take out chloramine. You don't need aquasafe brand, but get some generic dechlor and dose the tank as directed (like it was all new water). If a fish's gill get injured by chlorine or ammonia, it may breathe heavily for life. Its like a human with emphysema.


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## cossie333

Boiled cold water as our hot water from tap isn't drinkable and has too much bacteria


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## Blue Cray

Sounds like you effed your cycle. By cleaning the water and ilter at the same time you probably have to cycle your tank all over again. Fish breathe heavily when there is ammonia present, if your tank isn't cycling again throw an airstone in and do a water change. I think you threw the tank into a mini cycle though.


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## cossie333

Ok but if it's doing a mini cycle and there's a lot of ammonia does this mean they will die as Its a 8 gal with 9-xray tetras 2 hillstreams 2platys and a botia 

I know this is too much but I can't do much about it right now and they were doing great till now and I didn't have the two platys but I put my betta who was being eaten by the tetras downstairs and bring them 2 up

all I want to know is will they die and shall I add an airstone tomorrow


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## JimW/Oscar

cossie333 said:


> all I want to know is will they die and shall I add an airstone tomorrow


Airstones are mostly for looks, they do very little to affect the O2 in the water except maybe stirring the surface a little, most oxygenation of the water comes from the surface being folded or churned by a water fall or other such motion.

Carbon is a chemical media the only actual purpose of can be to remove medications.

If you are having a mini-cycle your ammonia then nitrite levels should spike.

I am wondering if your fish were made sick from the medications, some meds do lower the O2 in the water and loaches are sensitive to low O2 as well as many medications.


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## emc7

14 fish in 8 gallons, mini-cycle, yes ammonia is likely. Likely the Aquasafe was protecting them by "detoxifying" ammonia and protecting the fish, but you used it up. If you have too many fish for the filter, you could get a tank that would never cycle. 

I'd tell you to change more water, but without dechlor you'd be risking chlorine or chloramine poisoning. Chlorine will come out if you let the water sit, but chloramine doesn't. If it happens to be in your water. I have no idea what UK uses. 

Air-stones to increase oxygen in the water. Not useless, but not a panacea.


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## cossie333

Woke up and turned the light on and the hillstreams breathing has calmed right down down and so has most of the others


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## emc7

if the breathing calms down at night, it could have been stress. If it calmed down after a few days and stayed down, it could have been ammonia or nitrite that the filter finally dealt with.


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## cossie333

Ok thanks guys u SARS me again


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## cossie333

It has started again as I added more of the treatment the box said to do it over 2weeks but they are breathing fast...........again


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## cossie333

Now I need u guys again as they are breathing fast again and my sunset platy who was good this morning is now dead what could it be


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## sq33qs

I started to notice it 2-4 days ago with two of my angel fish, very fast breathing, hiding a lot, not eating. I tried to figure it out and treat my fish, i found both my fish dead today aswell, was following this thread to hope and get something, hope yours gets better mate. good luck.


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## cossie333

Yer and u m8 watch the thread I'm sure some guys will help


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