What's Wrong With My Opaline Gourami?

[Raydawn]

Hi all,

Shame that my first post is about a sick fish... I have a new 20 gallon tank that is about one week old. I followed the instructions in the starter kit for going fishless the first few days, saw the bacteria blooming in the tank, and added an opaline gourami and a red-tail shark on the third day. All my water tests were fine (and still are). After a few more days I added a red tux sword and a black mollie. They seem fine and are eating happily. The red-tail seems rather timid but healthy - he spends a lot of time hiding in his "tree", but he comes out and explores too. I don't see him eating, but he seems fine otherwise.

But the gourami has become more concerning. I believe it is a female. She found her surface corner pretty quickly when entering the tank, but for the first few days she would come out, swim around (sometimes frantically) and eat. Even yesterday she came out to inspect the new sword and mollie, but now she is completely resigned to the corner. I tried putting a blood worm right in front of her face and she wasn't interested. I even left the worm on the surface right in front of her for several minutes and she didn't even sniff it. She occasionally takes a gulp of air, but otherwise just sits there unmoving. I'm pretty sure something is wrong.

Any advice for my poor gourami?

 

[Raydawn]

Update: I noticed her eyes and scales had a reddish hue and saw that this could be from a fungal infection, so I bought some PrimaFix and applied it to the tank. Her reddish hue is definitely gone and her eyes have cleared up, but she's still staying in the corner. She came out briefly yesterday and looked completely normal for about 5 minutes, then went right back to the corner. I guess I'll keep applying the PrimaFix for now.

 

[loraxchick]

read up on cycling. If only set up for a few days without any fish im afraid the tank isnt cycled. Do a big waterchange right away and see if they show signs of improvement. Do not overfeed the fish, in fact feed every other day. Get a good liquid test kit and test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. You are in a fish-in cycle and will have to do lots of waterchanges for the next severeal weeks until the filter can process the ammonia and nitrite.
All the best
cheers

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Raydawn

I'm going to move your thread over to the "Your New Freshwater Tank" section. The folks who post in there will guide you through the cycling process, a step at a time. It will take a little time and effort, but in the long run I think you will find that it's well worth the trouble.

 

[Raydawn]

Thanks.

I wish I had done a lot more research before trusting the starter kit instructions and my fish store. I wasted money on the strip test kits (they were obviously wrong) and my fish aren't happy. I'm figuring things out now, so hopefully I can set it right. I purchased a much better testing kit and I'm doing frequent water changes.

So for now I have two main questions. 1.) Okay, I get it. Nitrogen cycle, nitrogen cycle, nitrogen cycle! So what are the indicators of a cycled tank? I haven't received my liquid testing kit yet, but unless my strip tests were WILDLY off, my water doesn't seem to have much ammonia. The water is still cloudy so I'm assuming the bacteria is still blooming? Is there a ballpark time period? How can I encourage bacteria growth? 2.) Looking ahead to the future - let's say I have this nice, established tank and everyone is happy. What if I want to invest in a better filter? If my filter is where most of my bacteria live, won't swapping filters be very dangerous?

Sorry for all my newbie questions!