Poorly gourami

[Sgooosh]

Hello! This gourami looks quite sad, but I am not sure why, other gouramis look plump and well.

 

[Naughts]

Not sure from the pics but it's lip looks like it may have cysts/rot/fungus. What does it look like in real life? Any other symptoms in the tank recently?
You'll need to post test results.

 

[GaryE]

That fish is not well, and its illness doesn't look new. I would immediately quarantine it.

Pearl gouramis can be intensely hierarchical, and it could be as simple as it being the bottom of the pecking order. They've been known to peck to death. It could also be an internal disease, or parasites. You don't have a lot to go on, so you have to go with a process of elimination to see.

The other gouramis that look well - how many are there?

 

[Colin_T]

Post a picture showing the entire aquarium and pictures of the other gouramis.

Deworm the tank and see if it helps. Section 3 of the following link has information on deworming fish.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Sgooosh]

That fish is not well, and its illness doesn't look new. I would immediately quarantine it.

Pearl gouramis can be intensely hierarchical, and it could be as simple as it being the bottom of the pecking order. They've been known to peck to death. It could also be an internal disease, or parasites. You don't have a lot to go on, so you have to go with a process of elimination to see.

The other gouramis that look well - how many are there?

from a heater issue, the male died in winter.
There are 3 or 4 females in total now.
I'm currently away, and my mother has been taking care of the tank. She missed a dead fish (old age?, a very old guppy.) and is currently doing maintenance to rehab the tank back to health.
Other fish that have issues is a very lumpy platy (TB?), and a cory with parasites (treatment going well so far), both of these are separated, and I do not want to put the gourami with the fish that possibly has TB.

Not sure from the pics but it's lip looks like it may have cysts/rot/fungus. What does it look like in real life? Any other symptoms in the tank recently?
You'll need to post test results.

Post a picture showing the entire aquarium and pictures of the other gouramis.

Deworm the tank and see if it helps. Section 3 of the following link has information on deworming fish.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

I will do that once I get back on the weekends, and get pictures by the end of today.

my "conclusion" so far is that the fish is poorly because of a combination of being bullied, which resulted in fin rot, stress, and possible parasites. I will separate her and try to treat after i get photos.

 

[Sgooosh]

Hello! here are photos of the rest of the tank.

photos are slightly blurry as they were sent across text

 

[Colin_T]

The other fishes look fine. Deworm them and see if it helps. If not post more pics.

 

[Sgooosh]

The other fishes look fine. Deworm them and see if it helps. If not post more pics.

okay! After some observation I think it is actually mostly aggression, her body seems to be plump again now.
Is there anything to change in my feeding besides deworm them to minimize aggression?

 

[Colin_T]

If it is stress/ aggression, adding lots of floating plants might help but the only way to fix it is to move her into a different aquarium.

As far as feeding goes, just offer them a variety of dry, frozen and live foods (if you can get live foods).

 

[Sgooosh]

If it is stress/ aggression, adding lots of floating plants might help but the only way to fix it is to move her into a different aquarium.

As far as feeding goes, just offer them a variety of dry, frozen and live foods (if you can get live foods).

okay, I have not had success raising sirindhornae for live food yet, but i have a variety of frozen ones. Should i feed them more frozen high protein foods?
and i feel like after the die-off of gouramis, the aggression is not dispersed as well, since there are only a few left and no male.

 

[Colin_T]

Feed them things like brineshrimp, daphnia, bloodworms, prawn/ shrimp, fish, etc. Most pet shops sell frozen marine mix, which is prawn, fish and squid blended up and frozen into cubes. They do a marine green too, which has similar ingredients but with algae or spinach added.

If you had more gouramis before and some died, that will change the pecking order in the tank and the new dominant one/s might not like or tolerate the subordinate. When there were more fish and there were other dominant ones, the subordinate would not have been picked on as much because the aggression would be spread around all the fish. When the number of fish reduced, the dominant one could be picked on more.

 

[Sgooosh]

Feed them things like brineshrimp, daphnia, bloodworms, prawn/ shrimp, fish, etc. Most pet shops sell frozen marine mix, which is prawn, fish and squid blended up and frozen into cubes. They do a marine green too, which has similar ingredients but with algae or spinach added.

If you had more gouramis before and some died, that will change the pecking order in the tank and the new dominant one/s might not like or tolerate the subordinate. When there were more fish and there were other dominant ones, the subordinate would not have been picked on as much because the aggression would be spread around all the fish. When the number of fish reduced, the dominant one could be picked on more.

Hmm, i will definitely check those out. I always assumed that they were too saline or something for my freshwater fish.

i totally agree, Would it be preferred to acclimate new, smaller gouramis to the tank?

 

[Colin_T]

i totally agree, Would it be preferred to acclimate new, smaller gouramis to the tank?

No. Adding more gouramis can make the problem worse.