Heavy Breathing

[Robris]

I have had my 4 mbuna since the 24th of may so around 23 days now and after about 8 days all 4 of them started breathing heavily, since then they still have been and I have wondered why, well what I just realised is that my tap water has a kH of around 3-4 (finally bought a Sera kH test kit), now for mbuna that is extremly low isnt it? And also my tap pH is 7.2 and thats what my tank has been testing at for the last couple weeks.

By keeping those figures so low is that the reason for the fish breathing heavily? Its not lack of Oxygen and my ammonia is 0.25 and nitrite is fairly high but I have dont very often water changes( approx ever 2 days) and I have been using Seachem Prime which removes the ammonia and detoxifies the nitrite.

I might buy some Seachem Lake Malawi buffer tommorrow, does that stuff work well? I recently bought Cichlid lake salt and added a small ammount to try and make them healthier.

 

[Rednuts]

shizz

what size tank are these guys in.

what type of mbuna you got .

Nitrite what's the reading you got there.

what type of filter you useing there.

I might buy some Seachem Lake Malawi buffer tommorrow, does that stuff work well? I recently bought Cichlid lake salt and added a small ammount to try and make them healthier.


i dont use this stuff so maybe someone can help you here.

 

[Robris]

My tank and fish stocking is in my sig and yes i know its tiny and totally agree with you but the fish are very small and for now should be ok (im not saying they are, lol)

Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 2.0
Nitrate: Never above 5

I was a noob and didnt cycle my tank, but im using lots of prime to detoxify the readings.

I really think my kH at 4 is bad and my pH at 7.2

 

[dthoffsett]

I pretty sure it's a reaction to the ammonia and nitrite, even with the prime it's going to effect them. For such a small tank you should be doing around 2 gallon water changes every day.