# Other Aquarium Forums > Fish Care, Nutrition and Water Management >  sick arowana, possible curled gill, rapid breathing

## lance

Hi everyone,

need your help n' advice.

over the past two days, my 4-inch banjar red aro is not behaving normally.

1. it breathes rapidly, mouth open n' close quickly

2. as it's mouth opens, its gill plates inflates. i can see the reddish insides of its gills from behind the arowana.

is this the beginning of curl gill problems?


*Other observations* 
1. My other smaller fishes in the tank behaves ok. however, there are two fish deaths over the past three days, among my 20+ guppies, ottos, bettas in the same tank.

2. my new archer fish, just introduced yesterday, also has rapid breathing symptoms. but it ate a frog n' a shrimp. appetite looks ok.

*water conditions* 
1. it's a planted tank. 3 feet. more than sufficient water for the bioload.

2. i have been giving it good aeration over the past three days.

3. measured water parameters. ammonia, nitrate, nitrites low n' negligible.

4. I did 35% water change two days ago. the gill opening problem seems to get worse after that. though the rapid breathing started earlier.

5. did 10% water change yesterday night. gill opening seems to worsen.

6. added salt, anti-bacterial (ocean free, herbal) n' geoliquid.

7. i use oceanfree anti-chlorine whenever i change water (the 80 cents per bottle type)


*Here are my suspicions* 
1. could there be metallic toxics? coz i did use stainless steel wire gauze for my riccia in the planted tank.

2. could it be the tap water condition?
I have another aro tank, bigger, with a 9 inch panda gold inside. it looks ok. but this morning, i observe it starts to open, close mouth slightly, not as bad as my small banjar red. it's gill plate is not moving as exaggerating. 


Pls help!!! 
*What are the possible actions i should take?*

1. move the banjar red to the bigger tank with the panda gold, keeping it safe within a hatchery enclosure?
(that's assuming that the water conditions in the 4feet tank is better)

2. keep it where it is now. keep on changing water daily at 10% every time?

3. what medication to buy n' apply?

4. change the kind of anti-chlorine i use?

Many thanks in advance.

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## Vican

My 3&amp;quot; panda gold also breathes heavily even though the tank is aerated.

I'm not too sure what actually wrong with your aro, but here are some thoughts. Hope they help

1) Does Ocean Free anti-chlorine removes chloramine? Heard that there are higher levels of chloramine in the water and it cannot be removed by bubbling. Also, look for those antichlorine that binds heavy metals. Not too sure if it will affect your plants though

2) a 9&amp;quot; aro shouldn't be showing such rapid breathing. Are your plants producing enough O2 for the fish?

3) I suggest not moving the fishes. Stress might worsen the situation

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## bclee

Not familiar with aro... but one point about anti-chlorine.

Most anti-chlorine that removes chlorine should be able to remove chloramine. But it will leave amonia. Some anti-chlorine which states that it can treat chloramine will remove this amonia too.

BC

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## bclee

Another thing...

Usually if my fishes appear to breath heavily, I will test for NO2 (nitrite), pH and KH. NO2 &amp;amp; CO2 will impare the fish ability to breath even when there are sufficient O2.

BC

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## vinz

> ----------------
> On 2/10/2003 2:18:18 PM 
> 
> Another thing...
> 
> Usually if my fishes appear to breath heavily, I will test for NO2 (nitrite), pH and KH. NO2 &amp;amp;amp;amp; CO2 will impare the fish ability to breath even when there are sufficient O2.
> 
> BC
> ----------------


BC means if there is too much CO2 not just the presence of it. Keep it between 20 to 30ppm.

What's your pH and temp? Your plants are bubbling?

Err... how low are your ammonia and NO2? Fishes have pretty low tolerances to these 2. Ideally, they should be 0.

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## lance

My ammonia n' nitrite levels are very low. almost zero for ammonia. for planted tanks, plants absorb ammonia readily.

i'v just raised temperature to 29 degrees yesterday. past three days, i didn't use heater coz it's good to keep the waters in low temperatures for planted tanks. but it might be too low for the arowana. the tank is in my air-conditioned bedroom but i only switch on the aircon at night when i'm in.

the 9-inch panda gold is ok. it's opening n' closing it's mouth but not as frequently as the 4-inch banjar red. Also, its gills do not move as much as the banjar's red.

it's the banjar red that really worries me. it's in a planted tank.

the panda gold is in a bare-bottom tank with some parrot fishes n' two 6-inch LH. 

Question: should i risk moving my banjar red to the panda gold's tank? maybe partition it to keep it safe from the bigger aro. 

or should i change water. Vic from arowanaclub.com did advise that i should not change water so often as young arowana is vulnerable to sudden changes in water parameters.

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## bclee

IMO, in a established tank, NO2 should read 0 not just low, especially when it is planted.

Is it a new tank?

BC

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## lance

it's an established tank. two months old. I let the planted tank mature for around six weeks before introducing the arowana. the 4-inch arowana only came in a week ago.

Yes. N02 is zero.

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## Vican

Agree that you should also check the CO2 levels. My friend's Regulator broke down and dumped CO2 into his aro's tank. His aro had respiratory distress and stopped eating. Luckily he discovered it in time.

How's your KH?

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