help think my angels sick!! rams flashing.

[loki993]

ok, ive noticed in the last week or so that my angel fish has been seemingly breathing hard, like its panting a little, I never noticed this until about a week ago. I have kept an eye on it, but have basically let it go because the fish displayed no other signs that it was sick, swam fine, no clamped fins, acted normal and fed. well tonight was different. the first thing I noticed was that the pink gourami was chasing the angel and "kissing" its fins. this suprised me because the gourami has NEVER bothered the angelfish before. then I fed the fish and the angel did not eat much, its acting very lethargic and has lost its spunk, still isnt clamping fins though. another note I have no idea how old this fish is, it is quite large, could it just be old?? water seems fine, maybe kinda hard. need some help or is my fish just old.

also ive noticed the my 2 new rams are flashing also. the blue one, he is larger, does it the most, the only time ive seen the gold one do it was after it saw the blue do it. I still havent been able to sex them, but im pretty sure the blue is a male, large spike, the gold is much smaller but also has a large spike, it may be male also.

dont know if these 2 are related or not, answer on either or both, no other fish in the tank show any signs of anything wrong. thanks.

 

[loki993]

just checked, I cant see anything visible on the rams.

as for the angelfish, it had a hole in its right fin, have no idea if this was caused by the gourami or its some kind of an illness.

 

[Rbishop]

What are your water parameters?

 

[loki993]

tank is pretty solid, our parameters dont really change much just checked them here they are:

using test strips so these are close, but probably not exact:
Nitrate: somewhere between 40 and 80, probably lower it was lighter when I pulled it, but it got darker the longer the water was on it, its probably really between 20 and 40

Nitrite: maybe .5, more like 0 probably, just darkened the pad a tiny bit.

PH: 7.0, this number is rock solid and never changes
KH: 40
GH: 180, this seems high to me, im not sure I should be concerned with it or not, from the searches ive made on the board, the consensus is that the fish will adapt to it and theres not a whole lot you can do about it anyway, aside from adding distilled water, which I may add a few gallons, but wont it affect ph also??

also today the angel seems to be a bit better, its moving around a bit more and its dorsal fin it up again, last night it had it down, im sure it was in pain last night and probably is now also, but seems to be feeling a bit better, im still afraid to turn on the lights as the gourami seems to leave the angel alone if the lights are out. I still have no idea what caused the injury. if it was some sort of illness wouldnt it be on more than one fin??

 

[Star_Rider]

Nitrite .5??

you need to do at least a 50% water change..nitrite should be 0 in a safe,stable tank. ammonia should be 0 (do you have test results for this?)

something is amiss in your water..rams flashing would indicate some irritant in the water.

I suspect if you have accurate test..the nitrite would be the cuplprit.

 

[jm1212]

your nitrates are also to high. they should be under 20, and even lower with rams.

how often are you doing water changes?

kissing gouramis get to big for your tank, and will get aggressive if they do not have enough room. a 75 gallon is a minimum.

 

[loki993]

how often are you doing water changes?

we just did one last week, before that it had been about a month. ive seen all different suggestions, once a month, once every 2 weeks and once a week. 10 percent 20 percent. I was planning on at least 20 percent every 2 weeks with the rams.

you need to do at least a 50% water change..nitrite should be 0 in a safe,stable tank. ammonia should be 0 (do you have test results for this?)

isnt 50 percent too much??? ive also heard that its not good to do anymore than 20 percent in a change.

sorry I tested for ammonia but I guess I didnt post it, its 0.

kissing gouramis get to big for your tank, and will get aggressive if they do not have enough room. a 75 gallon is a minimum.

he was one of the fish given to us with the tank, he kinda big, but not too big, id say maybe 4 or 5 inches. he has never shown any aggression towards the angel fish before, in fact its normally been the angelfish chasing him when he gets too close. its just been this last day where hes been bothering to angelfish and hes relentless. were definitly going to have to do something with him, but I cant do anything right now.