Fast breathing

[pat_ask08]

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.

 

[pat_ask08]

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

 

[pat_ask08]

Other than that one red dot, she looks fine. No reddish fins or anythinf

 

[surfandshine77]

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 ?

 

[pat_ask08]

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.

 

[pat_ask08]

All my other fish are doing great tho so idk

 

[surfandshine77]

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 .

 

[Bectan01]

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