Help with my Rachovii '98

[strung_0ut]

Hey everybody,
I am new to the whole killie scene, but I must say these are very beautiful fish, which I would of never knew about if had not been this site. I'm beginning with the N. Rachovii. These are young specimens and have already begun sexing. No eggs yet though, but recently things have been going downhill for my male within the last 4 days. First, I noticed he hasn't been eating like the vicious little guy he is, and now he is laying on the floor breathing hard, not fast, but big breaths. The three reasons I can think of this would be: Temperature is getting colder and has dropped to 19 degrees C when used to be 21 C, I made 3 not so small moss walls that hang on paperclips which the paperclips all are rusting, and last month I did a major rescaping, I removed my 4 echinodorus from the tank and retied all my mosses. I have removed the walls and paperclips, added a powerhead for more oxygen and changed about 20 percent of the water.

Any ideas on recovering this guy? The female and all other fish are fine. He has been healthy for about 6 months now, not scared of anything, not even my hand, and a really healthy eater, this is all just recent.
my tank specs are:
ph 7.8
kh 11
gh very high
no co2
only moss tank.
I don't want to lose him, any ideas?
Thanks,
Dennis

[turaco]

Dennis,
If your killi is Nothobranchius rachovii Beira 98, please spell them in full. Name & location code are very important to the coded fish just like your indentity . I believe 19-21C is too low for them. You mentioned they're 6 months & are beginning to sex out, there's way too slow. They're annual, which is suppose to grow fast, breed & die off. I don't keep them any more, but I used to keep them in room temperature(28C). If they are breeding like rabbits , in 6 months' time they should expired, all energy used up doing it .

[TyroneGenade]

Your problem is the powerhead. Nothos are not built to swim against current. You have tired your male out. Reduce the water movement (infact simply turn the powerhead off totally and put the moss back!). The pray and hope for the best. I would start looking for another male... I don't think he is going to make it.

Sorry.