Hyperventilating Apisto

[skoram]

Last night I noticed my female Apistogramma erythrura opening and closing her mouth somewhat rapidly as if she were hyperventilating. She otherwise appeared to be in relatively good health though her movements did seem a little lethargic compared to her normal pattern. She is housed in a planted 10 gallon tank with 4 clown killifish and 3 of her own fry (about 4 months old). None of the other fish are showing symptoms of any problems. A few days earlier I performed a roughly 50% water change and cleaned the sponge filter a bit (it had a lot of detritus and debris stuck to it). We have also been experiencing unusually hot weather in Korea these days, so the tank temperature has gone up about 1 to 1.5 degrees from its usual 25.5 degrees Celsius. Other than that, there has been no changes to the tank.

Here is a video I shot of her last night:

Any ideas about what might be ailing her are greatly appreciated.

 

[gerald]

I dont know, but its probably NOT temperature. 28.C shouldn't cause respiratory stress. Sometimes fish breathe more rapidly after eating a big meal. Let's hope it's not a disease getting started.

 

[skoram]

I dont know, but its probably NOT temperature. 28.C shouldn't cause respiratory stress. Sometimes fish breathe more rapidly after eating a big meal. Let's hope it's not a disease getting started.

I agree Gerald, I highly doubt it's due to a raise in temp - current temps have not even reached 27 degrees. Unfortunately, the fish appeared in even worse condition yesterday so it definitely seems to be disease-related. I suppose it must be either a bacterial or fungal infection, though I could not spot any sores, lesions, growths, etc. on her body. She just appeared to be weak and her coloration was "pale." Fins also look to be *slightly* damaged but I am not 100% sure.

I really hope she pulls through this as she is one of my favorite apistos and still relatively young.

 

[gerald]

When fish in soft water are having osomregulation problems (loss of salt ions) the fin edges are often the first place to show symptoms. This is partly why newly-caught fish often show cloudy or ragged edges on the fins. The stress of collecting causes them to lose salt ions rapidly.