fish's bad breathing

[thanatos0203]

ok so a few of my fish are laying on the ground every now and then and looks like they are having trouble breathing, the ammonia is at .25 the nitrate is at 10 and the nitrite is at 1, i lowered the ph to about 7.4 because i read that lowering it should help them breath better

 

[DesignsOnYou]

I would suggest not messing with the ph, as changing it can stress the fish even more. I'm not sure what the problem is, but you could try a water change or two to get those numbers down. I just know that lying on the bottom gasping isn't good, and that better water quality shouldn't hurt. Hopefully someone else will have more specific advice.

 

[Lotus]

It's the nitrites. They're more poisonous, and cause long-term damage to the fishes' ability to process oxygen. You need to do water changes to keep them under 1ppm, preferably less than 0.25 ppm. Add a pinch or two of aquarium salt (just a pinch or two) to help reduce the effects of nitrite poisoning.

Basically, the nitrites affect the hemoglobin, and your fish are suffocating.

 

[MissFishy]

What lotus said above ^

Also, after looking at another post about your tank...your fish are NOT compatible. You have a green spotted puffer in there, they actually end up being marine puffers when they are adults. You also have a clown knife which gets HUGE.