gold gouramis turning gray?

[nomommythatsmyfood]

hey...I went in to my old store the other day to check and see how my fish were doing...well....ontop of tons of other issues that I had to tell them to treat, I came upon something that I am unfamiliar with??!!?

the tank that holds the gold gouramis was on observation, so I go to take a look and the poor babies had all turned like a grayish brown color...i mean they had completely lost their gold shine! they seemed to also be very lethargic and had clamped fins...

I looked at the disease guide thing and Im still unsure of what is going on!?!?

I know for a fact that their water parameters prob arent the best I would say that their temp in like 70-74ish...their ammonia is 0, nitrites 0, but I would also guess that their nitrates are through the roof...i can say this bc I still know whats going on there and what maitenance is being performed.

i will try to get pics the next time I am out there... but in the mean time...any ideas??

mucho thanks!

 

[RiVerfishgirl]

It doesn't sound like disease, sounds like stress.

The temperature is way too low, and like you said the nitrates are probably through the roof. So their color is washed out.
It will turn into them getting sick though if they're kept in poor conditions for too long.

 

[nomommythatsmyfood]

thanks...ya know thats what I was thinking...i am just so upset that the conditions have gone down so far with me only being gone like a month now! okay and if I can ask you another question...tons of the tanks have ick =( they also have live plants...now I know that ich will attach to anything living so...if they treat the tanks with everything in them...fish and plants included...will the ich eventually die off? or should the plants be taken out and treated separately? and then the fish in an empty QT tank? thanks again!

 

[RiVerfishgirl]

The fish need to be properly quarantined and treated. They need to take care of their water quality and temperature issues, which is probably not going to happen.

They can temporarily get rid of it by treating with something like malachite green, but if most of their fish have ich it's because of poor water quality leading to stress. Ich is always present in some amount in freshwater aquaria, but healthy fish normally fight it off. It becomes an issue when water quality is poor and the fish are stressed and become infected, in which case the ich is spread in large amounts and takes hold on the stressed fish.

That's why you see ich a lot in fish store systems. They tend not to be properly maintained (the stores should be doing water changes, even on a large well filtered rack), and are overstocked leading to poor water quality. The temperature may vary drastically from tank to tank, and the fish are stressed. So the ich spreads and takes hold easily.

 

[nomommythatsmyfood]

yeah... I know, it just kills me bc I put so much effort and love into my little fishies and tanks... and then I go in and all of my little babies are sick!!

but what about the plants? I read on here that if you give the plants a thourough rinse and place them in another tank then the ick will eventually die off since there is no host...do the plants not act as a host? I guess the question should be...if the plants are taken out of a tank infected with ick and placed in another just plant tank...will the ick live off the plants and infect the rest of the plants therefore, infecting someones home tank when they buy a new plant??

 

[RiVerfishgirl]

yeah... I know, it just kills me bc I put so much effort and love into my little fishies and tanks... and then I go in and all of my little babies are sick!!

but what about the plants? I read on here that if you give the plants a thourough rinse and place them in another tank then the ick will eventually die off since there is no host...do the plants not act as a host? I guess the question should be...if the plants are taken out of a tank infected with ick and placed in another just plant tank...will the ick live off the plants and infect the rest of the plants therefore, infecting someones home tank when they buy a new plant??

Plants don't host ich. It needs a fish host. If the plants are in an empty tank for long enough the ich should die (heat accerlates the diseases life cycle, so the warmer the tank the quicker it should die without a host). Ich is also sensitive to salt, so many people treat by raising their temperature (accelerating the ichs life cycle) and adding salt. So the ich will more quickly fall of the fish and succomb to the salt.

If you take plants from an already infected tank, then yes it could infect your fish. So you should not move plants, decorations, or substrate directly from an infected tank to your own.

 

[nomommythatsmyfood]

planst dont host ich...gotcha thanks so much for all the feedback...everywhere! =)