Aequidens listing, and breathing heavy

Hello all,

I have a poor little fish that is sitting in the sand, barely moving and breathing heavy.

All other fish are doing perfectly fine. Did a 30% WC on Sunday.

I thought the fish might be stressed because of overfeeding, so I gave it a epsom salt bath with a little bit of Prazi Pro. I dissolved more salt into some hot water and added it to the tank to flush out the systems of all of the fish.

However after a few hours the poor guy is still sitting on the bottom, breathing heavy.

Anyone have any ideas as to what might be causing this?

As with all fish illness, I always start with water parameters.  I check them all to see if there is something there causing a problem.  And often just because everyone else looks OK doesn't mean the tank is OK.  It's just something to follow up on.  After testing if the water parameters are good then I look elsewhere.

Being a cichlid, the first things that come to mind are aggression and bloat as prime problems and potential culprits.  Does he/she have tank mates (you say other fish)?  Could they be bothering him/stressing him?  If so that can cause illness.  You mention overfeeding...that is also a stressor and can cause problems.

Can you remove the fish to a quarantine tank to observe it more closely and possibly treat for other illness?

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And there are lots of other articles as well as articles on aggression. Good luck in finding the problem.

Agree with Donna. I would start with the water parameters.

When you say overfeed, was that a one time accidental thing and the reason for the 30% water change?

cichlid-gal wrote:As with all fish illness, I always start with water parameters. I check them all to see if there is something there causing a problem. And often just because everyone else looks OK doesn't mean the tank is OK. It's just something to follow up on. After testing if the water parameters are good then I look elsewhere.

Being a cichlid, the first things that come to mind are aggression and bloat as prime problems and potential culprits. Does he/she have tank mates (you say other fish)? Could they be bothering him/stressing him? If so that can cause illness. You mention overfeeding...that is also a stressor and can cause problems.

Can you remove the fish to a quarantine tank to observe it more closely and possibly treat for other illness?

Article on bloat from Cichlid-forum

And there are lots of other articles as well as articles on aggression. Good luck in finding the problem.

I wasn't able to find my water test kit, and its been so long since I've used it the thing probably isn't accurate anymore. I did put Prime in the tank to neutralize any spikes.

The tank is a 125g and heavily populated, but there are more sensitive fish in there than the aequidens. All of the fish are relatively young, and its possible it could be aggression. However this morning the fish is still alive, all be it still breathing heavy. I've kept pike and pbass, so aggression isn't anything new and I haven't seen any of the other aequidens beating on the sickly one.

I unfortunately don't have a QT tank, and had to turn my tank into a chemical bath for all of the inhabitants last night. I'm working today, and will give the sickly fish another salt bath when I get home, if its still kicking in the tank anyways.

Betty wrote:Agree with Donna.  I would start with the water parameters.

When you say overfeed, was that a one time accidental thing and the reason for the 30% water change?

I don't know if "overfeeding" was accurate, and it is kind of a general term that I shouldn't have used. I feed 2 pinches of Omega One veggie pellets, 2 pinches of NLS 2mm pellet, and some veggie rounds for the plecos once a day.

Because I have quite a few spotted silver dollars in the tank, I'll add some NLS sinking pellets to make sure the geo's get food when they sift.

I know that bloat is usually caused by foods with high protein, so I'm not sure if this could be the cause of it since the foods I've been giving are relatively low on the protein scale.

The 30% WC is done once a week, its an old habit that I picked up when keeping large pike and catfish. I save the water in a 50g drum to water the vegetable garden.

As I mentioned, the fish is still alive although breathing heavy. No signs of a swollen belly, but will keep an eye on it as soon as I get home.

So I'm pretty positive the issue is with the swim bladder. I gave the little guy a epsom salt bath again and the breathing slowed down a lot...however when he was put back into the water, he dropped like a rock.

I'll be getting some antibiotics shortly, and seeing if that will help stabilize the swim bladder issue.