Cardinal Tetra - Fast breathing

[SquishyPenguin]

Hii!
Not long ago I posted about a chubby cardinal tetra I have- everyone seems to think it's just well fed - I'm back again because it has developed some other things i'm concerned about.

First time owner, so everything makes me panic!
Today it seems to be breathing quite heavily, its mouth [and gills?] are always on the go, waaay much more than any of my other fish who barely do.

I did disturb the tank a lot earlier doing some maintenance and re-decorating, as well as about a 30% water change, but that was some time before noticing the breathing.

The 2nd thing is that the fish's silver area, I guess the belly, sort of..undulates and changes shape. It's very odd. Sometimes its bigger in the back, sometimes the front, sometimes has a soft W shape. that strikes me as ...really weird? I don't see this with any of the other fish and can't really seem to find any information online. This is regardless of when the fish has been fed, they were not fed today.

Tank is not done cycling.
Testing with API Freshwater Master Kit

parameters for today are:
Ammonia: 0.25 or less
Nitrite: 0.25 after the water change earlier
Nitrate: 10
pH: 8.2, regular for this hard water area.
KH: 240 [max on API test strip]

re ammonia; struggling to get an 0 on this, everything but bottled water comes out as 0.25 green [seems to be a common problem with this kit?] and even then bottled water barely looks any different!

Video to help, sorry about the BG noise I was watching a video:
https://vt.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_oz8862RjwZ1qmzyli_480.mp4#_=_

Thanks for any help!

 

[Autumnsky]

Are you using Prime water conditioner?

Looks like it might be a good idea to use RO water, at least to lower water minerals and pH. As an overall long term strategy. Or get fish which enjoy liquid rock water .

As for these guys, Nitrite can cause immediate and or long term issues with fish internal organs. Can cause "unexplained" fish deaths ~3 weeks after exposure to such conditions (fyi).

I would use Prime to get the Nitrite under control. It will help in your fish-in cycle.
Seachem - Prime

 

[SquishyPenguin]

Hii!

Yup I'm already using Seachem Prime - perhaps I'm not using enough? I did have a high nitrite spike at the start of the week, I've managed to reduce it to .25 with water changes + prime.
I'll look into RO water some more, my LFS is actually a general pet store - where my cardinals came from - and I'm not sure if they readily have it. The other is about 45 min drive away and it might be a lot of hassle, if they even do it. //ponders//

Thanks for the help! I suppose for now I'll put it down to nitrite issues and hope it improves - I assume I need *some* nitrite in there though, to continue the cycle?

edit: it's worth noting the fish came to me with the...weird..undulating stomach thing. The fast breathing is a new development, however.

 

[Autumnsky]

Yes, you can do 5 times dose of Prime to detoxify, so I would count the amount you just added after the pwc.

General store wouldn't likely have RO - I have an inexpensive RO unit I got second hand almost new, but it is a 100 gpd unit and was under 100 new.

It is this brand looks like this, it is just a 50 gpd but should be reasonable enough. RO usually costs $0.50 per gallon and the time and effort to pack up and go to the store so if you deduct the cost of gas, it is pretty reasonable.

Pure water club brand
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Rev...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=EG1YYGT3EFAAS8K1A03Q

 

[SquishyPenguin]

So just to clarify, should I add prime until the nitrite reads 0, even though I'm still cycling my tank? or am I misunderstanding ?


Thanks, I'll look into it!

 

[Autumnsky]

Maximum dose including what you already added. If you used the amount for one treatment for X number of gallons you can do that 4 more times.

It is possible that the Nitrite will still read high. It will do that for ammonia as the parts of ammonia are still present in the water but no longer toxic. Honestly I don't know if it is the same for Nitrite but I would feel pretty confident it could take care of just .25 Nitrite.

Not exceed the recommended maximum dosage, unless the manufacturer says it is alright for certain circumstances.

 

[V227]

If it's just one Cardinal Tetra out of the group with the listed symptoms, my guess is an intestinal bacterial infection. Not much hope for survival. I agree with Aut. 8.2 ph is much too high for long term success with delicate Cardinals.
You might try adding a substantially sized piece of dark, tannin enriched driftwood like Maylasian or mopani to naturally lower ph.

 

[Autumnsky]

Could also consider a substrate which can help with some buffering down like Amazonia but many kinds need to soak or be in a fishless cycle due to the amount of ammonia they leach for 6 to 8 weeks.
Lots of driftwood!