Fast Breathing

[PodGirl]

During the day my clownfish seem to breath normal. However, I've noticed that my clownfish breath very rapidly at night. I have a 55g and i just did a water changes today. I've never really payed attention to them at night before. I'm wondering if it normal for them to breath faster at night?

Temp : 77F
Nitrate: 10 ppm
Salinity: 1.023

Sorry thats all the parameters I have.

However, I just had water tested at LFS about 2 weeks ago after having a few fish die in a row. At the time all water parameters were within a good range except nitrate which I have done frequent water changes to correct.

[ACE]

How long has your tank been set up?

[Squiers007]

What is your setup like? Hang-on filter? Overflow w/ sump? sump/fuge? Do you have any powerheads?

[corruption]

+1 -- more details on your setup, and the actual readings on your tests would be beneficial... What was the levels of nitrates before you started to do frequent water changes to attempt to correct?

-Justin

[ErikH]

Are you acclimating your fish?

Here is what we need to know to be able to take a decent stab at helping you :
1.) Tank Age
2.) Inhabitants
3.) Amount of Live Rock
4.) Amount of Live Sand
5.) Percentage of Water Change Weekly
6.) All levels, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, & PH

Maybe its a low PH thing at night, coupled with Ammonia or Nitrates. This would cause your fish to be in a more acidic environment, which would cause difficulty breathing. Over time, this can cause the fish to have breathing problems for the rest of their lives.

How about.... take the fish back to the LFS and ask them to babysit until you get your parameters inline.

[Bill S]

I'm guessing here - without some specifics - that this might be a circulation problem. What are you using for circulation?

[Still Learning]

2 weeks ago after having a few fish die in a row.

Do you know why those other fish died? White spots on their bodies, heavy breathing, odd behavior?

[PodGirl]

I have had the tank for over 3 years. However, I have moved a couple times. It has been in its current location for about 6 months. Not really sure on the amount of live sand or live rock. I would guess at least 100 pounds of live rock. I have a canister filter and one powerhead. Nitrates were at 80ppm (very bad... I know) before frequent water changes which is what I am thinking caused Tang, Jawfish, Anemone, and Cleaner shrimp to die.

Currently I just have two clowns, cardinal, and mandarin. The cardinal and madarin seem perfectly fine. Also, although I don't really know the signs of a stressed starfish or clam they both seem to be doing fine as well. Other inhabitants include...staghorn clam, small bubble anemone? (I think), hermit crabs, snails, various mushroom coral, leather coral, kenya tree, various polyps, candy cane, hammer coral, and sun coral. The only coral that I lost through the whole nitrate issue was frogspawn.

As of right now the clownfish seem better.....at night though they pant extrememly fast.

Hopefully, the above informations helps. Thank you for any and all help!

[ErikH]

Are you running carbon? I would just to see what happens. How much are you feeding? How large is your cleanup crew? When and how often do you clean your filter? How deep is your sandbed? Can you see black spots? Have you been changing your sand out? Are you sucking the detritus off the sand while changing water?

[PodGirl]

Yes, I have carbon in my filter. I try to change the filter media at least once a month. Its been about two weeks since I last changed everything . And I actually changed out the water polishing pads in the filter two days ago. Since the decrease in fish I've been feeding very little. Trying to improve my water quality not make it worse after my little die off. I changed most of the sand out last time I moved the tank about (6 or 7 months ago) and added some a few months ago as well. Sand is probably 2 inchs deep. My starfish and nassarius snails keep the sand pretty clean and I try to stir up every few days to avoid any build up. Again, its the just the clownfish.....Cardinal and Manadrin seem fine. Do naked clowns have some kind of breathing disorder that others don't?

The are definately not breathing like they were. I changed a few things today just to see what would happen.
-When in doubt change a bunch of stuff that could further stress your fish out j/k
Anyway I'm wondering if maybe one of these things actually helped. I can think of possible reasons why each one might possibly have helped but feed back is much appreciated.

1) Increased my water temp just slightly - 1 degree
2) Shortened the amount of time my lights run
3) Moved filter output higher up in water so it agitates the surface water more

[Mike]

Could it be an oxygen issue? Are you getting enough oxygen exchange? Maybe point a power head at the surface....

[Third Coast Tropical]

Sounds like your are having a diurnal fluctuation in oxygen. A lot during the day, and depleted at night...Is there a lot of algae in the tank?...Like mike suggested, point a powerhead at the the surface...perhaps even add another, or airstones.....

I really think it is an oxygen issue if they appear okay in the day, and stress at night.

[PodGirl]

I think the problem was low oxygen. I added an air stone and that seemed to work well. I find it weird that this problem didn't come up sooner. Either way I'm glad to have it fixed. Thank you to everyone that added there input.

[aquasport24]

Nice to see a good ending.:bigsmile:

[ErikH]

good deal. Thank you for posting as you did. It is very trying to help people with any situation in a SW tank without all of the info. :) Welcome to MAAST, if you haven't been welcomed already.

What is the total amount of flow in your tank? You may want to stop in at one of our sponsor stores and ask about a sump, and some filter socks. Way easier to deal with than what you have imo.