Rapid Breathing...

Rapid breathings is about the only thing all my fish have in common. The bi-color blenny did not part take in meal time like the 3 green chromis and the three shrimps.
In stead he stayed in his hole, and even seemed to be slipping from it. if he got too far out, or if I got too close he'd back up in a bit, but over all doesn't seem like hes doing all that great.

Things done in the last couple days:
Added 2 Koralia 1 powerheads. the chromis loved it, and my corals have all opened more than ever. especially my toadstool leather.
Siphoned a ton of cyano out with an airline tube, this took about 3 gallons of water from the tank.

When I came home from work the salinity was at 1.025
and thats when I noticed the heavey breathing.. so I added a bit of freshwater and dropped it down to 1.024 like I usualy keep it.
check the temp @ 78-79 (one of the two, hard to read sometimes)
Nitrates are under 20ppm
Nitrites didnt show up.
Added some of seachems stability after the feeding though.
Turned on the Aquaclear for a bit of extra oxygen.

other than that.... I dont understand what could cause this change. the bi color has always had a little faster gill movement than the other fish, but he behaved quite normal for the last week. heck he even bit me for the first time the other day, cheeky lil bugger. my back wall looks like one of those magic eye pictures, I keep expecting to see a 3D image popping out soon. so hes been working on my algae.

I got home around 6 hours ago, and noticed it right away. Did all my water checks then. fed them about 2 hours after. now i'm worried.

Anyone got any ideas?

 

do you have a skimmer?
do you have a overflow box?
do you have any power heads pointed toward the surface off the water, for disturbance?
what is your filtration?

 

also can you test your ammonia?

 

No Skimmer
No OverFlow

1 Fluval 204 with just biomedia and carbon
The two powerheads do make the surface ripple but nothing major.
Generaly fish depraved of oxygen will turn around within the hour once more oxygen has been added, is this different for salt?

I cannot test for ammonia as my work seems incapable of ordering anything useful to me.
The only feeding they got last night was flake (shrimp stole most of it)
you would think my corals would show more signs of stress if the water was becoming toxic, rather they have become more happy latly.

 

saltwater contains less oxygen then freshwater. im sure the fish would turn around rather quickly with the reoxygenation of the water. i would recommend either a overflow or a skimmer to help with gas exchange as a film will build up on top of the water and prevent gas exchange( evaporation also be ready for a change in top off freq. if you get one).
to improve the conditions i would point powerheads at the surface so you have alot of disturbance. also i would not feed the fish in this state as the fishes oxygen demand increases after eating.

also a canister filter decreases oxygen in the water as, the bacteria is forced to compete with fish for oxygen in the water column.

personally i see this as a persistant problem in your tank, that will only get worse with from stocking.

 

well heres an update on the situation, its an odd one.
I woke up this morning and look in the tank, Blenny was still gasping and so were the chromis. Nothing I can do about it, I know I have no other reef safe products for general treatment than prima/melafix and both of those I always have around anyway.
Went to work (stripped our 50 gallon disaster and prepared it for a fresh cycle, I feel good about that)
I come home, .... everyone is suddenly better O-o. The blenny is alert and breathing normaly, the chromis are playing with the powerheads. My cyano is suffering (YAY!! now my green algae is taking up the slack and starving out whats left of the cyano >_>.
All's well.
Had to go to the next town over and pick up my dad from the airport. Came home 4 hours later...
one of my chromis is missing, after a little looking around I find him resting ontop of the ball of chaeto next to the fluval intake. Gasping hard all by himself. One of the other chromis is paying alot of attention to him, swimming back and forth and trying to usher him out of the place hes stuck in (so I turned down the flow on the fluval and watched) once he got himself free I noticed he had some bad scale damage, he was swimming irregularly and pretty much looked like he wasnt going to make the night. Then the other chromis wandered over and instantly started picking and being aggressive unlike the first. Yet now the first starts behaving like the rude one. I grabbedmy breeder trap and scooped him up. Now I can see even from the computer here, he looks beyond my help.

some info about those chromis:
The Aggressor was the sole survivor of a marine ich outbreak when I first cycled the tank. A very oval body, nice blue coloration. 1 of 4
The other two were added in after the tank settled in. They have a more more boxy or gaunt shape than my first one. And a much more green/yellow color.
I have read that the males have more green but its still very difficult to tell gender... makes me wonder just what caused this attack on one though.

Talk about mood swings in a tank. This is retarded.

 

The rapid breathing or Gilling can be a sign of Ammonia poisoning, maybe you had a little spike?