Gourami Gone Mental

[NaughtyT]

I'm really concerned about my female golden gourami.

Last sunday she was hiding at the back of the tank when she is usually always upfront,just after feeding time she went absolutely mental,circling like crazy the shot all over the tank at high speed even hitting the lid,then she nose dived and spun on her nose for around a minute,flopped onto her side,turned upside down,swam like that for 30 seconds or so then she was fine except she has damaged part of her top fin(just a little nothing serious)

She did this a few times and has never done it again until tonight,again violently flew around the tank hitting the lid etc she even freaked the dog out,it lasted around 3 minutes then she was lying on the rocks on her side,i honestly thought that was her dead,went to get the net to fish her out and shes back at her usual place at the front of the tank and has been her usual self all night again.

All of my other fish in the tank are fine (check my sig for stock) the male is quite protective of her now and chases anything away that gets too close to her.

Water peramiters are fine so i'm a bit confused as to whats going on with her.

Anyone experienced this before or have an idea what it could be??

 

[CKutz]

that sounds similar to what my dwarf gourami is doing. He stays at the bottom all day, barely moving, sometimes leaning on his side. he'll swim around occasionally but its he looks like a mental person wondering around. and he'll dart all over the tank like yours, then hit the surface, then dart back all over to the bottom and lay there.


i think it's retarded gourami syndrome haha
i just got mine though, so he's going back to the lfs, i don't feel like dealing with it with a fish i just bought. good luck with yours though

 

[NaughtyT]

Retarded is exctly what came to my mind

She is now sticking to one corner at the bottom of the tank constantly hitting her nose off the front of the tank,not violently just swaying,she goes to the top for air and then right back to the same spot,i bought her about 6 weeks ago.

 

[CKutz]

i don't know what to tell you, mine is still alive, i don't know how..as i've never seen him eat anything..but he is. maybe if you have a hospital tank you could put him in there and give it stuff like melafix and maybe something for internal parasites or bacteria, i don't know..

if i were keeping mine i'd probably be doing that. separating him, and giving him a dosage for a little of everything for a week or two.

I actually tried to force feed mine and that didn't work.. cause i read this guy did this with his eel that would never eat, and after that it would always eat. i don't know how people do it, but sticking a bloodworm in his face didn't make him any hungrier i guess.

good luck..

 

[NaughtyT]

Well she is still alive and now has one of these fits atleast once a day after everyone i think thats her dead,but she gets up again,she spends all of her time on the bottom of the tank except at feeding times,she is eating normally,very confusing indeed.

 

[StatMan]

I saw similar behaviour from my moon light gourami, which due to circumstances was in a tank that was slightly over crowded.

At the point it got a little to busy in the tank he started to bob in and out of a corner.

Always a bit of a recluse prefering to spend most of the time hidden at the back of the tank, he has now moved from the 60L to a 240L and he is not showing any of the bobing behaviour. But does like to go and hide a fair bit.

He is also a keen gardener, today I saw him rip out some fine grass I had planted at the front of my tank and arrange it on the top of the tank next to some of the other stuff he had pulled out!

StatMan

 

[kevinthecow]

I agree with stat, i think it's cause of overstocking. ):
Happend to my bala, and my loach. Except the bala shark just ran into the sides of the tank, once or twice then calmed down. The loaches went at it for two minutes. Their tails splashing on the surface, making squiggly lines with their bodies.
):

 

[NaughtyT]

I moved her into the smaller tank this afternoon and she stayed at the bottom all afternoon,happy to say that she is now swimming around as she should be and looks much happier.


Can't wait till i get my bigger tank cycled

 

[Phage]

This is my 'retard'
http/tinypic.com/player.php?v=291p0si&s=4

he did the same thing, swam randomly into stuff. I have a 55 gallon and it wasn't overstocked. Still confused as to why...

He stopped doing it now thought.