Help! Honey gouramis unwell

[Obsessed with fish]

So i bought a pair of honey gouramis today, for the first few hours of them being in my new tank they seemed fine, but now there both just sitting there in one of my anibius plants. They are not being active and seem to be hiding

My water params are:

Ph- 6.7

Nitrate- 40ppm


Temp- 24 degrees celcius

Other fish-

8 neon tetras

5 sterbai corydoras

1 swordtail

Could it be that my nitrate is so high, if so how can i lower it?

 

[Ram419]

Water change to lower nitrate. If you chnage half the water it should half the amount of nitrates.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

Water change to lower nitrate. If you chnage half the water it should half the amount of nitrates.

Is it urgent to do the water change, or can i do it tommorow morning?

 

[Fishies4Ever]

It should be ok until tomorrow morning but just try and do it as early as possible tomorrow

 

[Obsessed with fish]

It should be ok until tomorrow morning but just try and do it as early as possible tomorrow

Ok I will do it as soon as I wake up, ty for your help guys

 

[Ram419]

Is it urgent to do the water change, or can i do it tommorow morning?

40ppm nitrate isn't that high but is starting to reaching the point where fish start getting uncomfortable. If they came from water that had much lower nitrates then they are most likely stressed. They will probably eventually acclimate to the higher nitrate or if they have an underlying health issue it could exacerbate it. I'd change the water as soon as you can but I think waiting until tommorw should be ok.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

40ppm nitrate isn't that high but is starting to reaching the point where fish start getting uncomfortable. If they came from water that had much lower nitrates then they are most likely stressed. They will probably eventually acclimate to the higher nitrate or if they have an underlying health issue it could exacerbate it. I'd change the water as soon as you can but I think waiting until tommorw should be ok.

Thankyou so much for your help, i will water change asap

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Gouramis appreciate surface cover, they feel vulnerable if there's no where to hide or if the light is too bright.

You still need to rehome that swordtail...

 

[Essjay]

You only bought them today so they will be stressed. They've been chased round a tank with a net, put into a bag, transported to your home (possibly being jiggled about on the way), maybe acclimatised by putting the bag in the tank and adding water every few minutes (if that's what you do) then put in a strange tank with different fish and possibly different water. It's not surprising it takes fish several days or even weeks to settle in and behave normally.


You need to get nitrate down below 20 ppm, and the lower the better. If your tap water has low nitrate, a water change done every day for a few days will get it down, then weekly 50% or more water changes should keep it down.

 

[sharkweek178]

I just want to concur with the others about the water changes. The lower you can get the nitrates, the better.
And also that hiding is a natural behavior for a new fish. They need time to adjust to their new surroundings. Honeys can be pretty mild mannered to begin with.

You might want to get into the habit of quarantining new fish before adding them with your other fish. You never know what pathogens they might be carrying that could be transferred to your other fish.
I run a spare sponge filter in one of my tanks that will be pre cycled if I need to transfer it to a quarantine tank. I also add fast growing floating plants to the QT to help water quality. (Honeys need floating plants anyways). Plus some plastic plants and pvc pipe fittings for them to explore and hide in. The floating plants grow so fast that you always have plenty to spare. So you can throw those away at the end of the quarantine. The plastic can be easily disinfected.
4-6 weeks is a long enough quarantine period for any possible pathogens to run their course. It doesn't have to take up a lot of space either. 10 gallons is big enough to be a temporary home for a couple of honeys. Key word being temporary.

 

[sharkweek178]

Wait. There is one important question here. Are these honeys male or female?

 

[Essjay]

And what colour are they?
Natural honeys are golden tan male, beige females.
The man made yellow variant, males and females look almost the same.
Red honeys aren't honeys, they're usually thick lipped gouramis.

 

[Byron]

A clarification on nitrates. Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are toxic to fish, period. They work differently, but all three are still toxic. Fish do not acclimate to high nitrates, at any rate not beneficially. Nitrate is slower acting, and it affects some species more than others. Fish are more likely to die from being weakened and succumbing to something else (such as disease) rather than dying from the high nitrates directly, if that makes sense.

Cichlids have problems with nitrates more than some fish. The cichlid sites are now advising that it is nitrate that is largely responsible for hole in the head (hexamina), and suggest keeping nitrates well below 20 ppm.

Nitrates in tropical water courses are zero or so close they might as well be zero. This is the water the fish evolved in. The lower the nitrate in the aquarium, the better. But fish do not acclimate to it, they slowly weaken and die from it.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

Gouramis appreciate surface cover, they feel vulnerable if there's no where to hide or if the light is too bright.

You still need to rehome that swordtail...

I will, the swordtail has swim bladder disease right now, so i will give her away once she feels better because i doubt anyone will take a sick fish. Thankyou for helping my swordtail!

 

[Obsessed with fish]

You only bought them today so they will be stressed. They've been chased round a tank with a net, put into a bag, transported to your home (possibly being jiggled about on the way), maybe acclimatised by putting the bag in the tank and adding water every few minutes (if that's what you do) then put in a strange tank with different fish and possibly different water. It's not surprising it takes fish several days or even weeks to settle in and behave normally.


You need to get nitrate down below 20 ppm, and the lower the better. If your tap water has low nitrate, a water change done every day for a few days will get it down, then weekly 50% or more water changes should keep it down.

Ok i will do that