Labored Breathing

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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xrayjeeper83
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Re: Labored Breathing

Post by xrayjeeper83 »

Image

I think it might be a turbo

But with in mins it had cleared a spot about 2inx2in that was thick with algae
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Re: Labored Breathing

Post by Srkoe »

I had a turbo in ashera's tank. She picked at it's foot and face until it died :(. She leaves hermit crabs alone though.
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Re: Labored Breathing

Post by signnet »

Ok, so where do I get these snails and what are they called? Triangle Snail?
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xrayjeeper83
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Re: Labored Breathing

Post by xrayjeeper83 »

I got mine from my LFS called a turbo snail
RTR wrote:Fahakas do not have tank mates, they may have swimming food reserves.
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xrayjeeper83
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Re: Labored Breathing

Post by xrayjeeper83 »

Srkoe wrote:I had a turbo in ashera's tank. She picked at it's foot and face until it died :(. She leaves hermit crabs alone though.
Mine doesnt seem to have much of a foot that is exposed
RTR wrote:Fahakas do not have tank mates, they may have swimming food reserves.
signnet
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Re: Labored Breathing

Post by signnet »

Should I have a heater in my tank? I saw a friend of mine who has a salt water and he has a heater. My temperature in the tank is 78 degrees.
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xrayjeeper83
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Re: Labored Breathing

Post by xrayjeeper83 »

if your tank is steady at 78 i wouldnt worry about it, but you may need one for winter
RTR wrote:Fahakas do not have tank mates, they may have swimming food reserves.
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Re: Labored Breathing

Post by signnet »

Ok, I just took all the media out and washed it again, and I also washed/scrubbed the glass sides of the tank. I put an extra filter on the tank. Will that help get rid of some of the algea?
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Re: Labored Breathing

Post by Pufferpunk »

I keep a magnetic algae scraper on the side, near the back of all my tanks, to clean the glass whenever necessary.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

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