# Rainbowfish swollen gills and rapid breathing



## mitko1994 (Dec 12, 2012)

Hi Everyone,

After having my 90g tank stay stable for a while, in the past month or so I have lost 2 plecos, one clown loach and a glow light tetra. I've been going through the same water changing routine (50% bi-weekly) since I got my tank. I'm completely confused as to what's causing my fish to die. I mean how is it possible to for them to live in the same conditions for months and all of a sudden start getting disease out of nowhere. I don't have my water parameters right now but I've had Ammonia spikes before which go down with water changes. My rainbows have been my sturdiest fish, I've had them for almost 2 years now and they have never had any disease before. I was really surprised to see one of them breathing rapidly and its gill plates swollen and opened more than they usually are.I really don't know what to do to prevent my fish from dying and getting weird disease. I don't know if meds are really necessary as only 1 fish is affected at a time and then dies. Any advice would help. 

Thanks


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## TorontoPlantMan (Aug 16, 2013)

It's quite important to get a test kit so you can understand whats going on with the tank in terms of ph, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. 

Are you using prime when you do your water changes? Also you should try to increase water changes to at least 50% once per week if you're experiencing that much death among your fish.

If you cannot test your waters simply bring them to your LFS and they should be able to test them for you.


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## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

Sounds like a nitrates related issue

Agree with Toronto Plantman about water change routine and addition of Prime


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## mitko1994 (Dec 12, 2012)

Thank you for your replies. It looks like the fish might have swallowed something that was bothering it(maybe a plant root or something) because right after I posted my post, I noticed the fish was back to normal.I do use Prime after a water change. I have a test kit but I rarely use it. I don't quite understand how it's possible for water parameters to change so drastically when my routine is the same and there is more plants and less fish to neutralize any parameter spikes. Current water params( 1 day after a water change) are: 
Nitrites: 0ppm
Ammonia:0.25ppm
Nitrates:20ppm


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## bluegularis (May 12, 2010)

*chemistry*

what about,

PH, DH, temperature ?

Thanks


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