Red spots and gasping for air?

[sydrc]

i have a silver oranda and a black moore in a 55 gallon tank. the oranda gets these red spots every once in a while on his wen. they seem to be underneath the outermost layer. as they progress the turn white and can be seen on the outside. i’ve noticed him gasping for air a lot recently. it seems to be more and more each day. he stopped after i did a water change last time, but he’s doing it again. he’s also floating, which i assume is because of the gasping for air. i assume he’s swallowing air because he can still control his swim bladder enough to go down, but when he relaxes he floats back up. i have two fluval aquaclear 50s running on the tank with established media (tank has been running for 6 months) and the water parameters are in the photo below. i’ve done a lot to save this fish because when he came home he had a white cottony growth on his head that ate away at his wen and i worked every day to treat it. it was really bad but he made it through and now it is sad to see him having another problem. i’m willing to do anything. any thoughts or advice is very much appreciated.

 

[BigFish99]

Firstly, you should probably buy liquied tests fro the tank as they are much more reliable than strips, but in the meantime your parameters look good...maybe try adding an airstone or sponge filter to increase the dissolved oxygen levels? Maybe, the spots are from red pest, or maybe he just scraped himself somewhere, in the pictures i cant see any spots at all.

 

[sydrc]

Firstly, you should probably buy liquied tests fro the tank as they are much more reliable than strips, but in the meantime your parameters look good...maybe try adding an airstone or sponge filter to increase the dissolved oxygen levels? Maybe, the spots are from red pest, or maybe he just scraped himself somewhere, in the pictures i cant see any spots at all.

i’ve heard that liquid tests are more accurate and i plan on getting some as soon as i run out of these strips, thank you for reminding me. i have an air stone going, which is why i’m concerned about him gasping. i think there is enough oxygen in the water because the black moor doesn’t gasp, which makes me think the oranda isn’t feeling well. the white spot in the photo started out as a red spot. i’ll attach older photos of the spots. they start red and deep, then seem to surface and almost scab over and turn white. does red pest affect the whole body or could it be one area like this?

 

[BigFish99]

if you look online, the two things that come up are bacterial or parasitic infection. However, I would not medicate until we have confirmed the problem...
Are there any other symptoms, like the fish rubbing itself aganst decor, etc? Is the moor completely healthy, or do you think he or she is also showing signs of illness.

 

[sydrc]

if you look online, the two things that come up are bacterial or parasitic infection. However, I would not medicate until we have confirmed the problem...
Are there any other symptoms, like the fish rubbing itself aganst decor, etc? Is the moor completely healthy, or do you think he or she is also showing signs of illness.

the moor is completely fine so it’s probably bacteria getting stuck in his wen. i don’t notice any other symptoms besides him gasping for air every now and then

 

[BigFish99]

In the newer, pictures I dont see any red spots either... the fish looks completely fine physically. I have heard that goldfish and koi often gasp for air to inflate or deflate their swim bladders, to control their watter elevation. Maybe thats what hes doing?