HELP!!!

Question
Ron~

I appreciate your quick reply to my question last night, however the leopard chichi just died.  He seemed to have lost a lot of his color - other fish are STILL breathing heavily.  Took out 10 gallons and am adding cooler water gradually to try and bring down the water temp - it is now 82.  I'm trying to get it down to 78 or 76 degrees - what else can I do?  I hate to see these guys suffer....

Answer
Hi Ann Marie,
 82 is not really too hot.  I doubt if temperature is really the problem.  Heavy breathing can be caused by lack of oxygen but it can also be caused by a lot of activity, for example, if there is a fish in there that is chasing everybody all the time.  Is that a possibility?

 Another possibility is some sort of gill infection (such as gill flukes) that make it hard for the fish to get oxygen out of the water.  Did you add any new fish just prior to the start of seeing these symptoms?

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresarch.com
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