badly wounded ch. Gourami

Z

zazz

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Mar 29, 2005
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one of mychocolate gouramis
http://fish.mongabay.com/species/Sphaerichthys osphromenoides.html
is wounded. i never see them fight, but one other showd up with a wound once...
Anyway, I have a 5 gallon hospital tank, but since I am only treating him with melafix I am wonderring if it would be more stressful to move him or leave him with the others. any thoughts?
 
I'd probably treat in tank as long as the other fish aren't beating up on this one, further stressing it. Injuries typically can be treated in tank unless the other fish are abusing it.
 
You could get yourself one of those hang on tank isolation units for issues like this. That way you can isolate the fish and still keep it in familiar surroundings. You can treat it as well, without having to treat the whole tank. Add an airstone if needed.
 
My experience with those is that they are agressive towards weaker individuals. What you have to do is figure out why that fish is weakened in the first place. These fish are very sensitive to metals in the water. They don't do as well in ph much above 7.0, and haveing them get along usually means m/f pairs of fish. I got a batch of males the second time I got them and the space that worked for the two pairs I had didn't work for these batchelors. A batchelor pad might have to be at least a 20 long or larger I would guess.

There are also 4 subpopulations of them that have different courtship behaviors that keep them apart. I don't know if there are issues with keeping those differing individuals together. No difference in apearance between them, just behavior pertaining to reproducing.
 
They generally are very well mannered in groups outside of spawning and courtship. However as snake said, these are one of the few species that really does need soft acidic water. My expirince with them is in water that is hard and alkaline, injuries just do not heal for whatever reason. A hospital tank would be good, a high water temp does these guys good, mid to upper 80s while healing, then lower 80s as a constant temp. Along with the melafix I would add regular salt to the tank, 1/8th cup per gallon to help fight off any bacterial infections.

Best of luck.
 
Thank you!
There happens to be salt in the water 2tsp/G because i am treating ICH. also for that reason the temp is about 90, which they seem to love.normally I keep it at 86.
the last visible ICH was about 6 days ago.none of the fish were visibly stressed by it.
I have 5 individuals in a 20 G,. with lots of driftwood and rock cavey places and plants.
Two of them have been in there for about 2.5 months and the other three about 2.5 weeks.
I have seen only very mild agressive behavior and not targeted toward any particular individual. That I had noticed.
There seem to be Two fish (I am not sure which gender :o ,)Who will occassionally sort of flare and dart at the other fish. I have never seen them make physical contact. The other fish will swim away and the agressor doesnt follow. One of these two is more agressive than the other only in that s/he will also occassionaly chase of the other chaser. if u see what I mean.
I was sort of thinking it might be some sort of dominance hierarchy deal, but wasnt too concerned about it. Everyones color apetite and activity level has been very good even through the ICH. The new fish had bad color for less than a day when I added them, then colored right up. The Pushy' fish are One original one and one new one.
To be honest I don't know the exact ph. I know that mine is the same as the ph at the store (The Fish Place) where I got them. Each week I do a 10 gallon water change and use 8 gallons of tap water and 2 gallons of RO water,(as per Nataku Tseng's advice)
So I "figure " it is soft and acidic enough. I will have the PH tested tomorrow though. On this tank AND the hospital tank.
The fish had been doing very well until a new acqusition brought in the ICH.
The injured fish is one of the new ones..
Ive been watching him carefully all day. He doesnt look at all well. He was staying in one place and the other fish appeared to 'visit' him. lol
I was watching very closely to see if he was picked on at all, but he wasn't. One or two fish would just seem to hover near by for a while, look him over, then swim off. It didn't appear to stress him any further.
At one point he moved to a corner were he could be alone for a while, but after an hour or so, Voluntarily left the hiding place and rejoined the community! even though he just sat in one place some more.
So, I really don't understand unless, maybe.. could there have been some sort of breeding thing going on at night that involved an attack?
I read in One place that introducing salt water can induce spawning ( but then i have read some odd contradictory info about these guys)
I turned off the light to try to reduce stress as much as possible,but...

Any Chance there is agression that only happens after lights out?

Thank you all for your help and for reading all this.
I wish there were more I could do for him.
 
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Zazz, the fish place as in the one Pete Mang owns? If it is, talk with Pete about it as well, Pete knows a lot (though I think he may still be in Alaska right now). Its hard giving advice without seeing the fish or knowing exactly what the water is like. With luck it will heal up fine.
 
Zazz, the fish place as in the one Pete Mang owns?
Click to expand...
yup. thats the one.
Fish didnt make it through the night. now i jut need to figure out how to keep this from happenning in futre. Thanks all of you for your help
 
Go have a sit down with Pete, well as soon as he gets back from the great north, not sure if he is yet or not. The man looks funny, but he's got a lot of fish stuff shoved up into that head of his.
 
Thanks, I will see if I can do that.
just an aside, but, I think having "fish stuff" shoved up into my head would make me look funny too.
:joke:
 
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