Sick Honey Gourami

[juno26]

Hi all,

I travelled home to visit my family for christmas and my other half is back at home looking after our fish. We have a male honey gourami and neon tetras.

Yesterday she noticed that the honey gourami never appeared when she put food in the tank, which is strange because he usually always rushes to the front to get it. She found him hiding inside of his little cave and he has spent most of his time there in the past 24 hours. When he does come out, he is swimming very slowly and suddenly freezes in the same spot. He also seems pale and turning more grey/black.

I got her to test the water and nothing seems out of the ordinary to me. Ammonia is at 0, nitrate 10, nitrite 0, ph 8.0. The neon tetras seem fine as well.

Today he has been a bit more active but we noticed that he has a strange shape on his body. I have attached an image of it. Can anyone help us figure out what could be wrong with him and how we can help him? We're very fond of the little guy and I really hope we don't lose him.

 

[Colin_T]

How long have you had the fish for?
Have you added anything to the tank in the last 2 weeks?

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BASIC FIRST AID FOR SICK FISH.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Maybe add some salt if there's no improvement after a couple of water changes, (see directions below for salt).

---------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

 

[DoubleDutch]

IMO it is a Thick Lipped Gourami that is allready far gone. Seriously doubting it can be cured.

 

[juno26]

How long have you had the fish for?
Have you added anything to the tank in the last 2 weeks?

---------------------
BASIC FIRST AID FOR SICK FISH.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Maybe add some salt if there's no improvement after a couple of water changes, (see directions below for salt).

---------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes. We have had him for 4 months now. The only things we've done in the last couple of weeks is a 70% water change 4 days ago and fed them bloodworms for the first time.

We have had him for 4 months now. The only things we've done in the last 2 weeks is a 70% water change 4 days ago and fed them bloodworms for the first time.

Thank you very much for all of the information. We'll try with the water changes and salt and see how things go.

 

[juno26]

IMO it is a Thick Lipped Gourami that is allready far gone. Seriously doubting it can be cured.

Yeah I'm honestly surprised he made it through the night. It's just frustrating not knowing what has caused this.

I've never actually heard of a Thick Lipped Gourami. He was sold to us as a Honey Gourami and I never thought otherwise. How can you tell the difference?

 

[Colin_T]

Looks like a honey gourami to me but one of the weird colour forms.

It might have been the blood worms. Some brands are good and some aren't.

It might have been the fish and it was on its way out and simply got sick over the last few days.

How long have you had the fish for?