I am fairly new in the aquarium world,, but have been reading tons of stuff to try and do things right,,,,, I have a 55 gallon freshwater tank that is now 5 months old. My water quality is good and consistent,, althought slighty more alkiline than I would hope for the fish that I am keeping. My parameters are steady at:
7.5 pH, 10-12 GH, 0 NH3, 0 Nitrite, tank temp is 78° F
I conduct weekly water changes, usually 12 to 15 gallons... and the tank is moderately planted.....
At one time,, I had more fish than I do now, but,, like I said,, I am trying to do this right,and I am putting all new fish through a three week quarentine.
for the past month,, I have had a Powder Dwarf Blue Gourami, and four sailfin white Tetras....
They are quite peaceful.. and I have no conflicts among them..
I feed them two or three times daily,, just a few flakes of dried flake food at a time,, and about every other day or so,,, I take some time and feed them frozen brine shrimp,, only as much as the consume immediately..... just last night,, my wife and I were looking at the tank commenting on how great the Gourami looked,,, it's color was brilliant, and it had great body tone and beautiful fins......last night it appeared to be making a bubble nest,, in fact it was,,, this is the thrid time it has done this.....
this morning,,, when I woke,,, before the lights clicked on, I noticed that the Gourami was swimming virtually vertical,, head high. I quickly ran a complete set of water tests,, and all parameters fell into the ones listed above.. I removed the Gourami, and placed him in my quarentine tank,, and within an hour he was dead..... I'm totally baffled......The Tetras look as great as ever, with a hardy appetite,, and beautiful flowing fins.
The ONLY mistake that I may have made was,, about four days ago, I purchased a few more plants, and left the lead wrapping around the bases of them when I placed them in the tank. This morning, after the fish died, I removed the lead wrappings from the plants,, and did a 15 gallon water change,,,,, I would appreciate some comments... I would hope that the comments would include any known sensitivities that Gourami's may have. All read about them is how hardy they are..and this fish looked SO healthy.
7.5 pH, 10-12 GH, 0 NH3, 0 Nitrite, tank temp is 78° F
I conduct weekly water changes, usually 12 to 15 gallons... and the tank is moderately planted.....
At one time,, I had more fish than I do now, but,, like I said,, I am trying to do this right,and I am putting all new fish through a three week quarentine.
for the past month,, I have had a Powder Dwarf Blue Gourami, and four sailfin white Tetras....
They are quite peaceful.. and I have no conflicts among them..
I feed them two or three times daily,, just a few flakes of dried flake food at a time,, and about every other day or so,,, I take some time and feed them frozen brine shrimp,, only as much as the consume immediately..... just last night,, my wife and I were looking at the tank commenting on how great the Gourami looked,,, it's color was brilliant, and it had great body tone and beautiful fins......last night it appeared to be making a bubble nest,, in fact it was,,, this is the thrid time it has done this.....
this morning,,, when I woke,,, before the lights clicked on, I noticed that the Gourami was swimming virtually vertical,, head high. I quickly ran a complete set of water tests,, and all parameters fell into the ones listed above.. I removed the Gourami, and placed him in my quarentine tank,, and within an hour he was dead..... I'm totally baffled......The Tetras look as great as ever, with a hardy appetite,, and beautiful flowing fins.
The ONLY mistake that I may have made was,, about four days ago, I purchased a few more plants, and left the lead wrapping around the bases of them when I placed them in the tank. This morning, after the fish died, I removed the lead wrappings from the plants,, and did a 15 gallon water change,,,,, I would appreciate some comments... I would hope that the comments would include any known sensitivities that Gourami's may have. All read about them is how hardy they are..and this fish looked SO healthy.