One barb breathing heavily and fast

[dmerklinger]

One of my toger barbs seems to be breathing heavily. I have 10 tiger barbs in the tank as well as a red tail black shark and a clown pleco. It is a 20g high tank with a Aqueon quiet flow filter. I did all the tests for water today and have 0ppm nitrates, 0ppm nitrite and 0.25ppm ammonia levels. I just yesterday did a 40% water change and k vacuumed most of the gravel. I did a 20% water change about 4 days before that. I also have about 6 small plants in there as well as an air pump with a air stone. I have had this tank for about week and a half and used api stress coat and api quick start when I first started the tank as well as with each water change. The rest of the fish seem fine, although one barb did die during the first couple of days in the tank. Any suggestions on why he might be doing this? He is a bit larger then the rest of the fish about over an inch, does not seem to have any discoloration. Any help would be awesome thanks!

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[dalto]

It appears as if you have a fairly large fish load in an uncycled tank.

You should monitor your ammonia and do a 50% change whenever it gets near 0.50.

What is the temp in the tank?

 

[dmerklinger]

Around 78-79 degrees

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[dalto]

I would lower the temp to the 75f range while you are cycling because ammonia is more toxic at higher temperatures.