breathless dwarf neon rainbow

[shellyx]

Hi looking for some advice. I,ve noticed that my rainbow has started gasping for breath none of my other fish are doing this, could he have hurt himself as he was always very active. Can't see any other symptoms on him. My water readings are ammonia o nirite o nitrate 5. It's a 180 litre community tank, thanks

 

[KittyKat]

What is the species of the rainbow and what are the dimensions of the tank? Age? How long have you had it? What are the tank mates?

Did you do a large water change? Do you dechlorinate new water? Do you temperature match new water? What is the temperature? What are the pH and hardness?

When did you last add new fish, plants or anything else? Did you quarantine?

 

[Impulse09]

Mine waste doing that but stopped after a while

 

[shellyx]

Thanks for the quick reply. The fish was named dwarf neon rainbow, the tank is 180litre jewel Rio, running for 7months, no new tank mates, guppies,platys,rasboras,Sailfin Molly & apple snail. Always dechlorinate water temp of water when cleaning the same as tank 26, ph7, nothing new in tank. His other dwarfs are fine just him, inside of his mouth is really red. Don't want to lose him these guys are great to watch. Thanks

 

[KittyKat]

How many of your rainbows are male and how many female? How large are the mollies? What species are the rasboras and how many are there?

 

[shellyx]

3 boy rainbows at the moment wanted 3 more had them for 3mth, 1 boy Sailfin, & 5 harlequin rasboras. They all get on great. The rainbow has taken to gasping at the top of the water & stopped eating all other tank mates are doing fine. Thanks

 

[KittyKat]

Currently, for me, the most likely cause is damage from fighting followed by an infection. One of the reasons that shoaling fish need to be kept in mixed sex shoals is that in small groups, they will pick on individiuals quite a lot. I consider an absolute minimum shoal (or school) size to be 6 and a good minimum to be 10-15+.

If possible, quarantine this fish and treat with a generic antimicrobial medication immediately (I prefer to use eSHa 2000), then get your shoaling species into proper shoals to eliminate this potential cause.

I asked how large the molly was because sailfins have the potential to grow to 6 inches and can be quite aggressive, this is especially true of males without females to bother. It is common for fish to behave while people are around (because most are intimidated by people to some extent) and to act completely differently when people are not there to see it.

 

[Derekkaine]

Ominous . . .