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125 Gallon heavily planted
PH 6.8 (Checked this morning after no lights all night)
KH 7 (Checked this morning)
Temp 85F
Ammonia 0 (Yesterday)
Nitrite 0 (Yesterday)
Nitrate less than 10ppm (Yesterday before 50% water change)
1 Canister filter
1 Eheim Wet/Dry
5watt UV Sterilizer w/140 GPH water flow
Water change = 40 gallons twice a week.

Livestock:
7 Discus (6-7 months old)
27 Cardinals
2 Male 2 Female Golden Rams
5 Clown Loaches
3 Rubber lip plecos
20-25 Amano and Cherry shrimp

About two weeks ago I noticed that all of my fish started breathing really hard and fast. I checked all parameters and everything was within the correct range.

After a couple of days I thought maybe the fish had gill flukes and that was causing the labored breathing so I treated with PraziPro. Removed carbon added correct dose of PraziPro and waited 5 days. I then changed 50% of the water and added new carbon. Fish seemed ok for a couple of days, but starting yesterday they were breathing really hard again. I did another 50% water change and that really calmed their breathing down again, but this morning all my fish were breathing really hard again and all my shrimp are at the top perched on plants just under the water surface. What could cause the lack of oxygen?

My surface water is crystal clear; the surface has no scum of any type (Eheim surface extractor). I run compressed CO2, but with the calculation of PH and KH that gives me about 28ppm of CO2 and I've read that should be ok.

Any help of why my fish might be breathing so hard would be very helpful!

Thanks!

Something else I noticed this morning for the 1st time that I forgot to mention.

There are a lot of tiny white/clear organisms that swim with a jerky or eratic motion through out the tank.

I've read that these are most likely a type of copepod or amphipods and that they are not harmful. Could these newly discovered inhabitants be causing a problem with the O2 level or could they be infesting the gills of my fish?

There is one copepod, namely learnea that is a parasite of fish, and it often attacks gills at a certain part of its life cycle.It takes on six different shapes during its maturation from young to adult , including the one youre describing ( probably a metanauplii). Treatments can range from salt and potassium dips, and copper to some really rather potent meds like ivermectin(often used by salmon and trout farms), but you might need to take a look at your LFS and see what they have for crustacean parasites. Dips , depending on how gregarious your discus are, may either provide temporary relief, or really annoy them, so the best approach is to delouse the whole tank.

As for the saturated oxygen, under infection, the fish may have a great deal of trouble getting enough oxygen as the gill filaments will be clogged and damaged, so to aid them you can take the temperature down a couple of degrees. Oddly enough over 84f is when saturated oxygen takes a bit of a knock due to the molecular action of gas, and keeping it below 84 can be beneficial. Failing that, you can add a monster aerator like a hydor ario to create a veritable cornocopia of bubbles . Learnia elegans often inflicts terrible damage on gill tissue, and mortality rates can be very high on smallish fish, so you dont have long to act. Id get down to the lfs asap and see what you can find. A hint here would be to check for pond treatments used with koi, koi are martyrs to copepod parasites, and will have a greater range of medicines available, but you may have to dilute them down somewhat, or use very small proportionately accurate doses.

Bad news is , that just about any treatment for learnea will kill shrimp too, (as in annihilate them) so you'll need to seperate the shrimp and the fish for the foreseable future.

Good luck