Flying fox fast breathing

[Ajc2634]

We have had 2 flying foxes for about 2 months.

Water conditions have been stable as follows,

Ph around 7
Ammonia <0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20.

A few days ago we noticed that 1 flying fish was breathing very fast, sitting on floor/ornaments, swollen belly and has a red patch behind its gills.

We did google and found that 1 cause could be due to high ph, having done a test the ph had shot up to 7.8.

We have lowered ph by using ph down initially and doing a water change the day after and is now 7.4.

Ammonia and nitrate unchanged as above nitrate 20/40

Are we correct in treating it as high ph or could there be another reason, all other fish unaffected.

Photo shows the red patch on affected fox but is not as pronounced now as it was.

Thanks

 

[libertybelle]

I have yet to hear of a situation which ph up or down was the solution. Fish mostly need stability waaaaay more than a particular ph.

If your ammonia is less than .25 but not zero for all this time this could easily be classic ammonia poisoning. The red gills would seem to indicate that. Certainly the first step is to get those levels to zero.