Bavarian Ram Laboured Breathing...help

F

fee

Registered Member
Apr 11, 2006
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Hello,
I just recently set up a 10 gallon tank with a cory cat, Bavarian Ram and dwarf gourami. I have a foam forming at the top of my tank and am worried that it's effecting my fish. My gourami died after one week. He died slowly and was sorta tipped over for a few days. Now my Bavarian ram seems to be experiencing laboured breathing at the bottom of the tank and choses to escape in a little bell located in the tank. I'm worried that my ram is going to die as well. Anyone know what the foam is and why my ram is breathing so hard?

thanks
fee
 
Have you put anything in your water/filter at any point? If so please tell us what.

Please tell us your water parameters.

Check that the bucket/container used for your water change was not used for anything else. A bucket with washing up liquid for example could be lethal to your fish.

A small ammount of short-term bubbles will be created through airstones or other such bubbling devices, are the bubbles lasting for a very short time or are they more like a froth on the top of your water?
 
Anytime you notice your fish haveing difficulties...the #1 first thing that I usually do is a good water change.....like 50%.

As Pixie said, if it's a newly setup tank then it hasn't yet cycled. There's a sticky here that explains what cycling is, give it a read when you get a chance....but for now, change out about half the water and then do at least a 20-30% change each day. Get some test kits and keep track of the ammonia,nitrites and nitrates during this process...and don't get anymore fish for your tank until it settles in. The "sticky" article will explain all that.

Welcome to the hobby ! :D
 
Labored breathing is a sign of either too much ammonia or too much nitrites or both. It can cause what is commonly known as "Brown gill disease" in which the fish suffocates because of the lack of oxygen in the water. Do a test twice a day during your cycling and see where you are.
I might agree with what was mentioned earlier in that if your tank has just been set up recently, it has not cycled yet; and that you should continue to do waterchanges until you get those two bad things down to 0.

Questions are:
1. What are your H2o measurements from your tests?
2. What type of filtration do you use on the tank?
3. Do you overfeed your fish, which could cause high levels of ammonia and nitrites?
4. What is the population in the tank? Over crowding can also lead to high measurements.
 
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