# Firemouth breathing heavily, turned dark, about to die



## emshel (Apr 21, 2011)

I have a (roughly) five to eight month old male Firemouth cichlid that stopped eating the day before yesterday and then last night was laying sideways on the substrate breathing deeply (not FAST, but deep.) 
Phosphates 5
Amm 0
Nitrates 0
Nitrites .25
I think the GH test is expired. I was at 30 drops, it was still yellow. The test stops at 12 drops at 200-400 ppm.

He is in a 75 gallon tank with an 8" pleco, 5" pleco, two Blood Red Jewels, Convict, Managuense (all cichlids, about the same size/age) and two young clown loaches. The only new guy is one of the Jewels, I think it's a female, and everybody has been getting along well. There used to be a screen splitting the tank in half, with smaller tropicals in the other side, but the cichlids were getting too big and trying to get into the other side, posing a danger to the trops, so my friend now has the little fish.

The firemouth is in a quarentine tank now, still breathing heavy, but not on his side and his color has lightened. He turned almost black.

He's my favorite little buddy, hes the only one that eats out of my hand. We just had a 40 Gallon marine tank fry (literally) because of a heater that never turned off over night. I think I need to stop fish keeping.


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## emshel (Apr 21, 2011)

I know they are from different areas, but I keep the water parameters as close to the middle for everybody. I have not had any problems until two days ago. It's just the one Firemouth. I'm watching the others VERY closely.

I also did a 25% water change last night, and I plan on doing another today. I personally do not like doing huge water changes all at once, unless there's a reason, so if I have to do it to save my little buddy or his friends, I'll gladly do it!


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## emshel (Apr 21, 2011)

Does anyone have ANY ideas? Now he's on his side under the heater in the q tank jerking backwards. he also turned dark again.


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## triscuit (May 6, 2005)

Oftentimes when I visit the folder, I look for posts that haven't yet received replies because it is not possible to answer them all. It's unfortunate that you haven't received the help you were looking for, but I expect that other helpful folks may do the same thing I do. :?

I hope your firemouth is still okay. The first thing I saw was that you have nitrites. Are you sure? Nitrates should never be zero (5-30 ppm is normal) and nitrites should always be zero. Nitrite and ammonia are both highly toxic to fish, so having either is a sign that your biofilter isn't working properly.

What is the pH of this tank?


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## Anthraxx8500 (Feb 11, 2011)

lots of water changes. give him fresh water no light. little food. enough salts to treat the tank and also make sure the temp is right around 80ish. seems like an odd set of problems. i dont exactly understand what you mean, but if your anywhere near point defiance i can help u locally


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