Rapid Breathing? More O2 needed?

[dntx5b9]

Do folks here supplement additional oxygen in the tank through airstone or by any other means? As the temp is pretty high in discus tanks, I was wondering whether or not additional oxygen is required. All the fish in the tank seems to breathe pretty rapidly, especially compared to African cichlids which is kept at high 70s to low 80s, and not sure whether that's due to high temp (86 ot 88), lack of oxygen, or something else. The fish are not sick. What is the normal breathing pattern for discus? My seem like they are breathing like 4 times a second (opening and closing the mouth). Is this normal?

[axl]

hey,
i had the same problem as you my fish were breathing heavily as well and this was caused by higher temps in the tank. The higher the temp the less oxygen in the water. I run co2 as well now i have to run co2 24/7 with 2 airstones 1 at each end and they are alot better now. They are now more active becuase of the more oxgen in tank and there breathing is normal again. You need to add more airstones.

[iludiscus]

Hi,

Ya may be because of high temperature or its a Gill Fluke Disease. The parasite attacks on Discus gills & that's why they breathing very fast. Please Identify the problem soon & treat them.

[shawn barker]

During the day my discus are fine, they swim around and breath about once or twice a second (never really counted it) but not as fast as 4 times.

Anyway I inject CO2 during the photo-period for my plants and turn it of at night. I noticed that come morning they would all be near the surface and breathing a lot quicker. I now have an airstone that comes on at night and they seem to be a lot happier ie not near the surface "gasping" and ready for breakfast!

Not very scientific or anything but it seems to work for my set up.

[ILLUSN]

I lost a few discus in a planted tank with high CO2, all discus were gasping every morning and bristlenoses were air gulping constantly. since adding 2 airstones, i havn't lost a fish, bristlenoses seem fine as well, you NEED air stones.

[dntx5b9]

Just ordered a Rena 300 airpump. Hope that will do for my 90G. Thanks guys.

[dntx5b9]

OK, so now I have an airpump. What is the best placement for the airstone and should I run it 24 by 7 or only at nights? Thanks.

[ILLUSN]

run it 24/7 and up your co2 to get the desired level, 1 airstone each end of the tank works well.

[dntx5b9]

Well, my air pump has one outlet so I placed the airstone at the center of the tank. Since putting the airstone in, the fish do seem a lot happier. I was actually very surprised. All the fish were a lot more active and definitely breathing slower. I am wondering whether the sudden lose of two discus I had few days ago was related to lack of O2 in the tank...