# Help with Sick Blue Gourami



## aqua2009 (Jul 29, 2009)

One of my blue gouramies is sick and not much active, it floates near surface beside the filter and tries to get air from the surface, also has a big scar on the side, other fish are fine, can anyone tell me what should I do? thanks.


















My aquarium info:

1. Size of aquarium (# of gallons)
*29 gallon
*
2. Is your aquarium setup freshwater or brackish water?
*Freshwater*

3. How long the aquarium has been set up?
*Transferred from an old 18 gallon aquarium 1 week ago, used same filter media, some water frm the old aquarium.*

4. What fish and how many are in the aquarium (species are important to know)
*7 different Guramies, 1 plecostomus, 1 black angel, 6 tetras.*

5. Are there live plants in the aquarium?
*Yes.*

6. What temperature is the tank water currently?
*Around 80*

7. What make/model filter are you using?
*Tetra Whisper Internal Power*

8. Are you using a CO2 unit?
*No*

9. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day?
*No direct sunlight.*

10. When did you perform your last water exchange, and how much water was changed?
*1 week ago 3/4 new water while tranferring*

11. How often do you perform water changes?
*Once per month*

12. How often and what foods do you feed your fish?
*Tetra flakes, frozen food*

13. What type of lighting are you using and how long is it kept on?
*Corallife compact 65w*

14. What specific concerns bring you here at this time?
*Fish disease.*

15. What are your water parameters? Test your pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
*Amonia close to 0*
*Nitrite = 0*
*Nitrate > 40 *
*Oxygen 4 mg/l*

16. What test kit are you using and is it liquid or test strips?
*API test kits, Liquid*
*Sera Oxygen and CO2 test kits*

17. When was the last time you bought a fish and how did they behave while in the pet store tank?
*3 days ago, good, very active.*


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## DragonFish (Mar 31, 2009)

Hmm.....looks almost like he scraped it on something black and the black rubbed off on him...I'll see if I can find anything on google for you.....
Curious, was he one of the ones you bought a few days ago?

Some things to think about though......a once monthly, large pwc really isn't as heathy for the fish, its better to preform weekly, smaller pwcs of 20-30%. Large, infrequent ones upset the balance in water quality and environment, a weekly, smaller one will provide for a more stable environment and healthier fish. Trust me, I speak form experience as well as from the advice of others I've read ;-)
Also, even in a 29 your quite overstocked......your going to probably need something around a 55+ in the near future. Keeping that many Gourami in such a small space will cause issues as they mature, especially if you've got more then one male. The Angel will get much too large for a 29 as well.


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## aqua2009 (Jul 29, 2009)

DragonFish said:


> Hmm.....looks almost like he scraped it on something black and the black rubbed off on him...I'll see if I can find anything on google for you.....
> Curious, was he one of the ones you bought a few days ago?
> 
> Some things to think about though......a once monthly, large pwc really isn't as heathy for the fish, its better to preform weekly, smaller pwcs of 20-30%. Large, infrequent ones upset the balance in water quality and environment, a weekly, smaller one will provide for a more stable environment and healthier fish. Trust me, I speak form experience as well as from the advice of others I've read ;-)
> Also, even in a 29 your quite overstocked......your going to probably need something around a 55+ in the near future. Keeping that many Gourami in such a small space will cause issues as they mature, especially if you've got more then one male. The Angel will get much too large for a 29 as well.


I got this one and two other gouramies 3 weeks ago, since then my angle fish hides somewhere near the filter as well and does not move a lot but looks healthy, i will try to change the water more often, what takes me back from weekly water change is that i have to filter the water first to remove cholorine as i dont trust liquid water conditioners and takes a long time. how do u do ur water changes?


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## Fishin Pole (Feb 17, 2009)

Use "Prime" as a water conditioner........It instantly removes ammonia, chlorine and chloromine from tap water..............it only requires a small amount and works great........No need to wait for your water to condition itself


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## DragonFish (Mar 31, 2009)

I agree with Fishin, I don't use Prime because I can't find it in my area but I do use a conditioner that specifically says it removes chlorine, chloromine, and heavy metals. All you need to do is add it to the water before you put it in the tank and your good to go ;-)


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## aqua2009 (Jul 29, 2009)

Actully I have Prime at home but never used it since never had ammonia, nitrite surge, now I see that it removes chlorine as well, I'll try it today when I get home and will change some water.

Do you check for Nitrate in your aquarium? what are the usuall levels in your aquarium? whenever I check it in my aquarium it shows more than 40 even after water changes, I'm hoping that my new plants use some of the niitrate. using the test kits its to hard to recognise more than 40 since the colors are very close in the chart (I'm talking about API Nitrate test kit)


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## DragonFish (Mar 31, 2009)

I do on occasion check for Nitrate, but I must say I'm lazy and don't always do it......but the proper levels in an established aquarium with weekly PWCs would be Ammonia-0, NitrIte-0(I'm sure you know that though)and NitrAte-between 5-10, occasionally going up a little more but never passing 20. At least, those have been my readings in all my tanks for some time now.
My guess is that your high Nitrate is due to your lack of water changes, keep up with them and they should stay down. The plants will help too of course though ;-)


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## Fishin Pole (Feb 17, 2009)

if your nitrates are still above 40 after a water change, i would wait a day and do another water change of about 50%............Try to get it under 20 if possible.......Longterm exposure to high nitrates will do your fish harm, but not to the extent Nitrites and ammonia will, but it still causes issues..............Also,one other thing, dwarf gouramis are notorious for being a sickly fish.........


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## DragonFish (Mar 31, 2009)

Fishin Pole said:


> dwarf gouramis are notorious for being a sickly fish.........


You know, I've heard of this too but I think I must be lucky or my LPS just has really healthy ones as I've never had any issues with mine


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## aqua2009 (Jul 29, 2009)

Looks like my gourami is getting better, thanks for all the suggestions Fishing Pole and DragonFish, I did a %10 water change (usinf prime) which decreased the Nitrare level a bit, I'll do more water changes over the weekend.


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## Fishin Pole (Feb 17, 2009)

key to keeping fish healthy = weekly water changes.......Glad to hear he is doing better, keep an eye on your water parameters for awhile after this incident and make sure nothing else is happening.....Good Luck!


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## DragonFish (Mar 31, 2009)

Agreed, glad to know hes doing better


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