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One Of 18 Fish Gasping, Perfect Water Conditions?

ester

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Hello, I would appreciate some timely advice.

Believed to be my oldest and best looking clown loach is gasping for air constantly these past few days. Everyone else in the tank is fine. It is a community tank. 

Info:
Water quality is perfect
79 degrees
Recently battled ick with API Super Ick Cure
Carbon is back in filter, etc.
There is aeration
50% water changes weekly with dechloration 

I cannot figure out why he is gasping for air 
icon_sad.gif
 
Could you please post;

the actual numbers from all your tests
the size of the tank, and whether it's cycled
the numbers and species of fish you have
how often and how large are your water changes

Sorry for all the questions, but we can't really help you get to the root of the issue without that information.
 
What I mean by perfect water is no ammonia, nitrates, or nitrites. 
 
pH was high though, 7.6ish
 
55 gallon
 
18 fish as title states.
4 clown loaches
4 black skirt tetras
5 cardinal tetras
2 long fin zebra danios
1 blue gourami
1 bolivian ram
1 red tailed shark
 
50% weekly water changes, as stated.
 
thanks. 
 
could still have ich in the gills.  how long did you treat the tank.  Ich should be treated for a couple of weeks.  I know normally you would raise the temp to speed up ich...but it also makes it harder to breathe.  Might want to lower the temp a little. 
 
ester said:
What I mean by perfect water is no ammonia, nitrates, or nitrites. 
 
No nitrate? At all?
 
This usually says to me that either the tank is not cycled or you have a lot of plants in that tank.
 
So may be useful to know if this tank is heavily planted or not so we can eliminate uncycled tank or not.
 
ester said:
pH was high though, 7.6ish
 
This is not a particularly high pH level to be honest, was it usually lower than this in the past?
 
Have you done any extensive cleaning of filter or substrate recently?
 
Vethian makes a good point about ich treatments and the temperature of the tank, how did you do this treatment and for how long etc, i know you mention API Super Ick Cure but any other details?
 
I know quite a few questions there but all helps us to get a picture of whats happening and get a general idea of how to help.
 
I appreciate the timely responses.
 
First I treated the ick with heat alone, for about 3-4 weeks.  First couple weeks were at 86 degrees, then upped to 88.5.  When I slowly brought the temperature back to normal, the ick returned after about 4 days!  So the next time, I used Super Ick at 84 degrees.  I did about 3 rounds of treatment at half dose for the clown loaches.  I had one loach die, and 3 long finned zebra danios.
 
I gravel vacc the whole tank each water change to hopefully rid the tank of ick.
 
The tank is moderately planted.
 
pH I believe was at 7 a month to six weeks ago.
 
Ick meds are bad for clown loaches because they are scaleless and do a lot more harm than good. This could be the reason. I learned this the hard way when all mine died. Salt and high temp is still your best bet. Make sure you are running a couple of air stones too, so they get enough oxygen. Just be careful when adjusting temps with clowns. Raise it over the next couple days. Afterward, if you chill it too fast they can get ick again quick. They are very susceptible to ick when water temps fluctuate.
 
I am aware about meds being potentially rough on clown loaches.  That's why I chose the heat method at first, but it didn't work.  I felt it was easier to give the recommended half dose of meds than mess with salt.  I could be wrong though. I'm not sure if I should go back to treating for ick.  
 
My first priority is figuring out my biggest loach's breathing problem!
 
He is still gasping for air, this time at the surface.  It's been about 4 days now. I really want to help him, he's my original clown loach and he (up until 4 days ago) was the most healthy and active one!
 
What should I do?
 
no.gif

 
He will be one of a few fish over the years that I will really miss if he dies.
 
But all the other fish are fine it seems, water is great.  The only thing I can think of was that there were a few ick parasites laying around after the treatment, and entered his gills?  Just like Vethian said.
 
Can you re-test the water again and give the exact readings as you find them on here?
 
And is the filter getting the water surface agigated for oxygen excahnge into water column?
 
Ch4rlie said:
Can you re-test the water again and give the exact readings as you find them on here?
 
And is the filter getting the water surface agigated for oxygen excahnge into water column?
 
I can retest after work.  And yes, the filter is creating surface agitation, as well the large air stone I have.
 
This morning when getting ready for work, I noticed a white spot on a different clown loach, which is the "new" healthiest one.  And I saw my Bolivian Ram flash off the cave.
 
no.gif

 
Could the ick be back after an extended medicine treatment that I administered, as well as thorough gravel vaccs each week?
 
Update: Fish is gasping and laying on the gravel. I'm so mad. I'm never adding fish again w/o a quarantine tank first. That's next on my list of purchases. He's definitely going to die :(
 
Just for clarity, can you post the last water test readings which was asked for previously..
 
And yes, in ideal world a Q/T for new fish for a while is a good course of action to take before adding to main tank, though I have been lucky despite have not actually Q/T'd any fish before.
 
Though my 10 gal tank is now empty, which incidently was supposed to be a Q/T or Hospital tank in the first place
nugget.gif
 
If the fish continually are getting Ich, then that makes me think that the water may not be as perfect as you think it is.

Tank stats please?
 
 
Update: Fish died :(
 
Ammonia, nirites, and nitrates were all ZERO. 7.6 pH
 
Nobody else is gasping at all.
 
I need to save for a 10 gallon filter and attach it to my 29 or 55 gallon, then when i want new fish, buy a quarantine tank.  At that point, I should be able to attach the already up and running filter for an instant cycle. 
 

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