gill flukes?

[the_dougie]

A few days ago I woke up to find one of my neon tetras breathing iregularly in a corner. His gills were inflamed and his mouth would open and close quite quickly.
now a few danios are showing the same symptoms -inflamed gills, irregular mouth movement, and the danios are really darting around! they'll lie under or in a plant and then when i go to take a closer look they dart to the other side of the tank and hide. has anyone else experienced these kinds of problems?

 

[Holly9937]

Everyone will want to know, so I'll be the first to ask !! Can you list the tank size, fish, and what your water test results are for ammoni, nitrite and nitrate?

 

[the_dougie]

25G tank
3 ADF, 3 tetras that look like hatchetfish but arent..., 5 Neon Tetras, 1 gold Danio, 2 zebra danios, 3 kuhli loaches, 1 siamese algae eater, 1 rainbow shark, 1 miscellaneous fish that i have no idea what it is.
0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 22 nitrite. lots of plants.

 

[Holly9937]

Have you added any of these fish to the tank recently? I thought flukes caused flashing too, but I don't know that it is a "requirement" for diagnosis. I think I've heard of oxygen problems with using Co2, but I know absolutely nothing about it, are they gasping at the surface at all, or just gasping in general? Sorry I couldn't be more helpful

 

[the_dougie]

no new fish. The amount of fish infected are few, so i don't think it has to do with any chemical imbalances in the water. just a few gasping wherever they seclude themselves.

 

[daveedka]

The flashing and inflamation can be caused by Flukes, but it can also be a wide array of other items. Including but not limited to any external parasite, and most water issues. Flukes are usually slow acting and not fatal themselves. they will weaken a fish and allow other nasties to take over though. Information on flukes can be found here.
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/trematodes.shtml

Dave