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10/06/2004 Last night when I went to feed the fish, one of the largest barbs was acting a little out of sorts. He wasn't swimming around that much, his body position in the water was ok, his fins were fluttering pretty rapidly, and his mouth was opening and shutting rapidly as was his breathing. I don't know what this would be. He is behaving like something is in the water (Chlorine or something) but none of the other fish are acting this way. If it was chlorine or some other chemical, I would expect it to cause the smallest fish problems first. I guess I will keep an eye on him tonight.

Anyone have any ideas? I check the parameter the day before and all was normal. (7.0 ph, 3 deg Gh, 1 deg Kh, 0 NH4, 0 No2, 10 ppm NO3)

Well, do you use decholorinator before you add water to your fishtank? If not, you really should. Chlorine is very dangerous to fish, you don't want to have any in your water.
If you don't use dechlorinator, go out and buy some asap, and put the recommended amount (on the bottle) in your tank right away. Again, chlorine is very poisonous to fish.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

it seems like your fish has gill problem.
it might be due to chemicals hurting it, or some parasite attacking them. i think other fish should be affected from chemicals too, but your assumption that the small ones are the most vulnerable is false. it really depends on the particular species rather than on size.

in conclusion, i'd look carefully on the gills of the miserable fish, and see if there's anything out of the ordinary, like obserbable damage or bad coloring.

Yes, I do use dechlorinator. I will look at the gills of the rest of the fish though. He seems to be better and more social with less fast breathing, But I'll check it out anyway. Thanks for your replies.