Strange Gourami problem...

NinjaPenguin

NinjaPenguin

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Feb 18, 2007
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Johannesburg, South Africa
1 of my 3 female gourami's has started throwing herself violently against the canopy of my tank and then sinking to the bottom where she hovers facing upwards for an hour or so before lunging out of the water again.

I have seperated her from the others and she is now in a 10g tank all on her own - she's clearly stressed and continuing the behaviour.

This has been going on for 36 hours now and I am not sure what else I can do for her... any advice will be much appreciated!
:help:
 
Your ammonia is too high, since ammonia should always be at 0. Did you cycle your tank?

Honestly it sounds like she's dying, and it could conceivably be neon tetra disease. Fish that contract neon tetra disease often suddenly have trouble swimming, or go spastic.

Does it have any of these other symptoms?


Restlessness

Fish begins to lose coloration

As cysts develop, body may become lumpy

Fish has difficulty swimming

In advanced cases spine may become curved

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/neondisease.htm

Even without the other symptoms a fish can die from NTD.

I'm not saying this is definately the case, but it's what came to mind when I noticed you had neons in your tank.

It could also have been caused by other factors, especially stress if your tank wasn't fully cycled, but unfortunately when I see a fish start doing something like this they usually don't recover.
 
I've just found a dead glowlight minus it's rear tail fin whilst doing a 25% water change - tetra's all present and accounted for. No sign of any damaged fins etc.

As for symptoms - She's restless (breathing very quickly) and having difficulty swimming (flipping over backwards and bumping into things)

Tank was started 2 weeks ago using water and filter media from our other tanks - fish added last week Sunday. Parameters tested twice daily and partial water changes every second day.

Would it be wise for me to move the neons to our other guppy+neon tank or just sit back and hope the dead glowlight was the carrier?
 
Worth a try I suppose.
It's always frustrating trying to stop fish illness/death when you have no idea what the problem is.
I don't know what fish to tell you to move since conceivably any of the fish could be infected with whatever disease this is, especially if they were nibbling on the dead tetra.

The only thing I can think of is maybe try treating the gourami with an antibiotic, and any other fish that start exhibiting signs of sickness. There are other infections that can cause the same symptoms as NTD, which is why these kind of outbreaks are hard to diagnose.

In any case you may want to move the neons just to eliminate some of the bioload, considering your ammonia is high.
 
Fishy passed away in the early hours of this morning. I have been watching the others and the only noticeable change is the intermittent aggression between the other 2 gouramis has ceased totally. Perhaps 2 is company, 3 is a crowd rings true in the fish world too.

Both gouramis have also settled in - they no longer take flight and hide when anyone approaches the tank. I had them both nibbling on my fingers whilst checking the water this morning...

On a positive note, we were greeted by around 15 new fry in my wifes tank this morning. Not sure if they molly or guppy yet but i guess time will tell! :dance2:

The upside down catfish has also started spending a lot more time out in the open and has become very attached to 1 of the plant leaves. He/she spent the first couple of days hidden under the driftwood.

SSA41337.JPG
 
Sorry about the fish loss!
 
Now this is where it gets interesting... I distinctly asked the sales person at the LFS for 3 female pearl gouramis because I don't have space for offspring! He said "they are all females - you can tell by their fins"

Guess what! 1 of them be male and his colour has now changed quite a bit (deep orange - the sign of impending fatherhood?) while the female is about twice as wide as she used to be! I have made a makeshift margerine container nesting thingy which he has already started blowing bubbles into...

I have moved the tetras and swordtails to our other tanks as male gourami was making some very threatening advances so the gouramis got their way in the end and they have the mid and upper region of the tank to themselves.

New stock for the 30g:
2 pearl gouramis
1 upside down catfish (in hospital tank with a mild dose of ich)
3 peppered corys (fell in love with the little devils whilst buying salt and they just had to come home with me! lol)

Does that sound like a more balanced bioload?

I am going to have to go shopping for a new tank pretty soon by the looks of it... *grin*

The gourami that passed away had the hole in the head disease described here - http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101366
When I saw that post it all started to fit together...
 
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