Help! What's wrong?

[JAnderson1]

What's wrong with my bubble tip? He was great this morning then I walked by and saw this? Can anyone explain? He's all shrively and his mouth is open.

Temp is 74/75
Nitrates .2
Salinity is 1.025
Ph 7.8
Alkalinity is 7

I've been dosing 8.4 and alkaline buffer to help raise both. I haven't dosed anything today. Help me out!

 

[JAnderson1]

So first I gave him a chunk of food. He seemed to like that and perking up quite a bit. Then I rechecked some tests.

Ph 8.2
Alk was 18!!!! What the heck!!
I just did a 5 gal water change to help bring it down. I'll test it again in a little while.

My bubble tip seems back to normal... Shew!!!

 

[salt_for_brains]

It looks pretty good to me from the second pic. When they are trying to expel waste they can look ratty and deflated. If you feed it give it small portions. It is a lot easier for them to handle as far as digesting. Big swings in your parameters can also make them look bad so even though your alk was high bringing it down slowly is better than having a knee jerk reaction.