Gourami Problem

[FishRunner]

hi, for the last twelve hours or so one of my gourami's is just sat on the bottom of the tank hardly moving at all, i can touch him with my finger and he seems to just sum up enough energy to move. I have 4 more gourami's and they all fine and healthy, but this one aint eating either. He does move but only up and down the glass but always swims with quite a bend in his body and only up and down, his breathing seems the same as the other fish, his mouth is always pointing to the top of the tank even when he's sat on the bottom, my temp went up to 28.5 last night but only for about two hours until i could get it back to 25/26.... any help?

many thanks

 

[FishRunner]

he's on his side compleatly now on the gravel, think it's too late looks like he's gonna die

 

[FishRunner]

had to remove the little fella from the tank, his belly looked quite swollen, could i be overfeeding?? was only last night i did something differant and put two sera algea tabs in for them all usually i just put one in the afternoon and maybe a tiny amount of sera discus granuals in a morning

 

[platypus]

Sorry to hear your fish is poorly - where have you put him now?

If you haven't already done so I'd suggest you do a test on your water conditions - ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, to see if everything's OK. You could also have a look at this page on tropical fish diseases.

Just one more question - how long has your tank been up and running for? And did you know you might be overstocked? I haven't done all the calculations but just looking at your sig that seems like quite a lot to have in a 96 litre tank. The rule is 1 inch of fish to 1 US gallon of water. There's a link to a conversion calculator that will figure out how many US gallons 96 litres is here.

Hope this helps!

 

[FishRunner]

thanks for the reply, he did'nt pull through what ever made him bad, my lfs told me that i was on the limit or just slighty over the livestock limit for my tank size and said if any of my fish get bigger they will need re housing, my tank is about 3 month old, just done water test and everything is fine no ammonia, ph 7.5 no nitrate very low nitrite, had a close look at him out of the tank and no signs of any spots or other damage

 

[Losi]

Sorry to hear about your gourami.
It sounds like it may have been a swim bladder problem.
Was the gourami one of a pair as I had a male dwarf die and soon after the female displayed the same symptoms and then past away herself..they dont do too well without a partner

 

[platypus]

Sorry you lost him

no ammonia, ph 7.5 no nitrate very low nitrite,

NitrITE is still toxic to fish (nitrate is the one that isn't so harmful), so if you have slightly elevated levels you should probably do a water change of about 25% asap, if you haven't done one recently. By recently I mean in the last few days.

Keep an eye on those ammonia levels too - I think the biggest problem with overstocking your tank is that even when your tank is cycled it will still struggle to deal with the amount of ammonia that your fish are producing through their waste. Do you have live plants in your tank? If you do have live plants, and you carry out regular weekly water changes, then hopefully you will be able to keep your water conditions good until you get round to rehousing.

 

[graemesmith]

I came on forum to post more or less the exact contents of the first post in this thread.

This is the second time I have had a pair where one suddenly outgrew the other and the smaller seemed to almost give up and die.

I've pulled the smaller to isolation but don't hold out much hope.....

Water is spot on
Plants (live) all look great
I just did a 20% water change the night before the symptom (I use Poland Spring for water changes - still carefully treated with Start Rite and tested before introduction to the tank

Anyone els have a view as to if they all just "give up"?

 

[FishRunner]

hi, sorry i hav'nt replied sooner been busy at work, firstly thanks for all your help to everyone, i have (had) three red flame and two colbalt blue gourami's, swim bladder?? this sounds like it could be it but i dont know much about it if anyone can help on this? i have about 8/9 real plants,done 25% water change yesterday just incase but the thing thats bugging me is have i over fed him? or could it be that swim bladder thing? cause he could only swim up and down and had a strange bend to him, like i said i could have killed him by kindness could anyone advise how much i should be feeding my stock, the current fish i have are in my sig..

again thanks for your help

 

[graemesmith]

Mine has perked up a LITTLE in isolation. Eating a little and swimming around tank some of time. Hopeful.........

 

[FishRunner]

glad to hear ya fish is getting better hope you have more luck than me