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Fish Breathing Quickly


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My fish seem to be breathing quicker than what I feel is a normal rate. No other signs of stress that I can see. Some slight aggression in tank. I know some of the fish in my tank may not work out long term but I don't think that's part of my current issue but always willing to listen to advice. Parameters are in pics. 150 gallon. Fish: 3 Oscar's, macaw, rainbow shark, common pleco, Dempsey, fire mouth, jewel, yellow lab, ob, pictus, chocolate, parot. All fish around 3-6 months old roughly. Filters: internal 40 gallon, fluval 305, 107, double stacked medium coop sponge filter with air stone, 1 small circulation pump running while the lights are on about 12 hours a day. Not running any chemical filtration or adding anything to the tap water. Ph is this high out of the tap.Temp 78. Fish are overall pretty calm most of the time, no lip locking or any injuries. Just the occasional 1-3 second chase. Feeding mostly big fella. The tanks been running about 2 months since last tare down.

 

Any thoughts on the rapid breathing? Seems to be all fish equally. Not gasping near the top, just faster breathing everywhere in the tank. I tried to take a video but the file type wasn't allowed  even when going directly to "camcorder" from attach files. Thanks for your time!

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Edited by Chrisanderson707
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On 6/25/2022 at 9:47 AM, Flumpweesel said:

Are you checking the temp or is that what the heater is set at.  Often worth a double check and warm water doesn't hold O2 the same.

If you can add another air stone it won't hurt and might help while we figure things out

I don't have a heater in the tank at the moment. I live in northern California so it stays pretty consistently between 77-80 degrees F. in the summer months. I will add another air stone and see if this helps. Thanks!

On 6/25/2022 at 1:10 PM, Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics said:

@Chrisanderson707i hope you figured it out but I was wondering where did you get that cool tree decoration?

I got it from a guy in my local aquarium club. Thanks for noticing! 

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Your fish are big for 6 months. California just heated up, plus some barometric changes. May have triggered some hormones and fish are feeling frisky (heavy breathing can be a thing just before sparring and pairing up for breeding). The fact that no one is near the surface would make me think your 6 months of calm fish may be about to come to an end. Are the colors more vibrant than they have been in the past?

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On 6/25/2022 at 5:30 PM, Torrey said:

Your fish are big for 6 months. California just heated up, plus some barometric changes. May have triggered some hormones and fish are feeling frisky (heavy breathing can be a thing just before sparring and pairing up for breeding). The fact that no one is near the surface would make me think your 6 months of calm fish may be about to come to an end. Are the colors more vibrant than they have been in the past?

Yeah, you might be right. The colors are about the same as always but I knew going in I may have to move some fish around. 

I shared your thought about them not being at the top. I figured if they were low on oxygen they would be near the top. But another air stone has seemed to slow the breathing significantly. 

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts! 

UPDATE: The obvious answer is usually the correct one. I added another sponge filter with an air stone and breathing has slowed to about half what it was! 

Thank you to everyone who shared their ideas. It's greatly appreciated! Happy fish keeping!

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