Report from a Newbie - Some Issues (Long)

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EagerAqua

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Jan 4, 2003
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A little history -
1. set up my tank on January 1
2. added 4 new dwarf gouramis on January 3rd
3. found this site and read LOTS (thanks to all who have provided advice - it is really helpful!)
4. thought, oops I probably added my fish way to soon
5. did a 25% water change
6. watched fish closely and realized that 3 out of 4 of the gouramis were developing something or another (white cotton like stuff on the mouth, funny looking scales above head, sore above eye, tops fins looking 'sticky') - holy crap I am killing my poor fish
6. January 9, bought test kits and ran some tests: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, ph at least 7.6 (my water has a high pH from my tap - the city says it is 7.5-8.3 depending on the time of year) - so I am figuring that it has cycled.

So what did I learn: many of the things that have been mentioned in the "Sticky: Common beginner mistakes " thread must be adhered to, especially patience when adding fish. Next time I start a tank I am going fishless cycle all the way.

Now on to my questions:
1. I have tried to identify the problems (diseases) on my fish but am having trouble nailing it down. Should I really med? Should I try salt? Should I just wait it out?
2. If fish with diseases die, how long can one wait before adding new fish to the tank, given that all the nitrite and ammonia levels are 0 (I will definitely test before adding new ones)?

Sorry for the long post and thanks for listening. Your comments are most appreciated.

Eager (but not so good at it yet)
 
Cycling: Did you add any media from a cycled tank? If you didn't, I agree with Dabbler that your tank would have cycled in very, very, very fast amount of time and you should keep a very close eye on your water parameters:

Infection: What sexes are your dwarfs? If they're all male, what your saying makes a lot of sense. Dwarf Gourami's are pretty agressive towards each other and would be very likely to inflict damage on each other (messed up scales and sores). The "white cotton" stuff is probably a fungus. This is very common as a secondary infection in wounds of on fish with compromised immune response. You'll want to research treating a fungus infection. A good place to start:

http://www.fishyfarmacy.com

HTH
 
Thanks for the relplies.

I did not seed my tank at all, but added Hagen's Cycle. Could that have sped things up this fast?

As well, yes after more research the gouramis are all males, and one in particular is pretty aggressive. Thanks for the link.

Eager
 
9 days is way too fast for a cycle, fishy or fishless. My fishless took a month, although I've heard of people finishing in 3 weeks. Fishy generally takes more time, not less. Most folks seem to report 1-2 months. I've never tried Cycle, but the consensus opinion around these parts is that it doesn't work. I'd watch for the cycle, recheck the levels regularly. You might take a water sample into the fish store to check your levels against another reference.

Dwarf gouramis, unfortunately, can be somewhat sickly, especially under stress. They are also territorial and can be aggressive, especially males vs. other males -- they are related to Bettas (Siamese Fighting Fish). I have 2 Pearl Gourami (a male/female pair) who have gone into bubblenesting mode: he has taken over one end of the tank, sometimes she's allowed to visit and sometimes she's not. No one else is, from midwater up.

Try searches for "cotton wool disease" and "mouth fungus". Mouth Fungus also may be called columnaris. A good place to start might be under fungus and other medications over at the Skeptical Aquarist. You'll need a java-enabled browser which I pretty much assume everyone has at this point -- if you have any problems with it I can e-mail you the sections. Anti-bacterials can screw up your cycle, and I agree with the Skeptical One that they really don't belong in a fish tank to begin with. Won't work against fungus anyway. Some of the meds can be toxic, so read up on them first. Salt and higher temps (low 80s) help. Water changes and amquel are good as well (amquel will screw up your ammonia test, but will reduce the toxicity of the ammonia).

Hope That Helps and good luck.
 
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