# Rapid Gill Movement Has Me Stumped.



## KO78 (Jun 12, 2011)

i have an approximately 4 year old elongatus who recently has lost interest in food, had rapid gill movement and been trying to hide near the surface in the back corner of his tank. Ive had him without issues since he was very small and have had experience with other piranha as well so i can generally snuff out a problem early, but this has me flummoxed! it's a 100gal tank with a powerhead, 2 75 gal filters, and substantial aeration. i know all signs point to water quality issues but all the water parameters in my api master kit are fine (ph 7.2, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0-5). temp is a constant 75. he is housed by himself and is fed nothing but dead, no live fish or other animals apart from small snails in the tank with him. the only chems i use are prime water conditioner and seachem substrate tabs for the plants. the only thing i can think is i moved about a month and a half ago and had to take down the tank then put it back together but ive done this before without issue and made sure to save as many as the beneficial bacteria in substrate and filters as i could. plus like i said the water perams look fine. is there something else im missing with a different water supply that may be causing this? could it be some sort of disease? im stumped!


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

Is he just hanging out at the surface, or actually gasping for air above the surface? Are your filters canisters or HOB?

I would try moving one of the powerheads to the surface and really stir things up and see if that helps.


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## KO78 (Jun 12, 2011)

i should probably also add that up until about 3 days ago he was totally fine in the new tank. eating chasing people that walked by it. his usual behavior.



Ægir said:


> Is he just hanging out at the surface, or actually gasping for air above the surface? Are your filters canisters or HOB?
> 
> I would try moving one of the powerheads to the surface and really stir things up and see if that helps.


thanks for the quick reply. they're HOB and he's just hanging out at the surface not above it. ive got one of the powerheads a hydor 850 up there all the time and since the issues began cranked the aerator all the way up. like i said there's live plants too so id think oxygen levels in the water itself would be good.


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

In that case, all you can really do is wait it out and see what happens. Rapid gill movement is typically low oxygen, when its really bad the fish will gasp for air above the surface. It could possibly be gill flukes, which would be strange if nothing changed in the tank... you can google image search and try to see on your fish.

I would suggest a water change, but if its stress related it could make things worse.


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