This morning I went to do a water change, and was surprised to find my gourami's pale part of his belly, pineconing a little. I did a thorough water change, but he is clearly in distress. He doesn't seem quite normal in control of his swimming, bobs a little bit in the current. He seems to be sipping air from the top about 2-3x much as he normally does. I have no salt to try because I ran out and the stores are closed today, so I dissolved 1 tbsp of pure epsom salts in the new water and added slowly. That was about 3 hours ago. I'm not sure he's looking better - I think he might be swelling worse. Should I do a water change and remove the epsom salts? Should I try table salt if that's all I have? Any other ideas? He was doing so well, next month was coming up on his 1 year. :/
I tested for ammonia, there isn't any, all the other parameters are what they usually are, ph is about 7.2 and steady, nitrates well there shouldn't be much since over the course of an hour I did several partial water changes. I don't trust my test so I'm not sure how many ppm it actually is. I had gone away on vacation for just over a week and have been back for 10 days, but had done a thorough water change beforehand, and premeasured food amounts for the sitter, and everyone looked good (if a little skinny) when I got back. The last water change before today was done last Saturday, a 50%.
Is there anything I can do for my poor guy? I didn't have any cucumber or spinach, so I got some of my mom's dark romaine and washed it, and have it in the tank for him, hoping maybe he's just gotten a bit irregular.
Thanks for any help.
12g tank.
1 dwarf gourami, 2 otos, 8 neons.
I tested for ammonia, there isn't any, all the other parameters are what they usually are, ph is about 7.2 and steady, nitrates well there shouldn't be much since over the course of an hour I did several partial water changes. I don't trust my test so I'm not sure how many ppm it actually is. I had gone away on vacation for just over a week and have been back for 10 days, but had done a thorough water change beforehand, and premeasured food amounts for the sitter, and everyone looked good (if a little skinny) when I got back. The last water change before today was done last Saturday, a 50%.
Is there anything I can do for my poor guy? I didn't have any cucumber or spinach, so I got some of my mom's dark romaine and washed it, and have it in the tank for him, hoping maybe he's just gotten a bit irregular.
Thanks for any help.
12g tank.
1 dwarf gourami, 2 otos, 8 neons.