Fast breathing

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pat_ask08

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
22
I've had my yellow tang a month and it just started breathing weird this afternoon. Any ideas on what is wrong? I noticed a little red dot on the top fin by her head. I feed her mysis or brine shrimp twice a day and have seaweed out for her for a couple hours a day. ImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1396386092.729824.jpgImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1396386126.040814.jpg
 
I have 45 pounds of live rock in my tank and I added some more this morning. The tang was fine. When I was moving some of the rock around, quite a bit of sand got moved around and made the tank kind of cloudy. Would that have anything to do with it? Maybe she sucked in some sand and can't breathe
 
Other than that one red dot, she looks fine. No reddish fins or anythinf
 
What's your ammonia levels ? If they're high, her gills will burn and it will make her breathe heavy . If your ammonia is okay, does she look like she has any slime on her ? Or white dots ?
 
Ammonia was none or really really low. No slime or white dots. She ate this morning and I didn't notice anything until after I added some live rock. I checked all my levels after I added the live rock and everything was good. Nitrates were less than 5. The only thing that was a little low was the pH but the chart said it was still good. I just went to check on her and she was dead. I really want to know how she died. The lady at my LFS said it was probably stress from adding the live rock. She is very knowledgeable about saltwater tanks so I believe her.
 
Sorry about your tang :( it could have been due to stress . I would carefully monitor your other fish & water parameters if you have others because when you add live rock, your levels will spike. And If you don't have anymore fish, I'd wait about a month for the live rock to cure and then get fish .
 
Sorry about your fish- I am guessing adding more live rock could have been the cause even what LFS sell as fully cured live rock can cause an ammonia spike. I wouldn't get any more fish for the time being and keep checking your parameters until they level out. It's also a good idea to stick with fish recommended for your tank size ;)
 
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