# My Sunset gourami looks awful



## Aurie (Jun 22, 2012)

1. Size of tank? Normally in a 46 gallon but right now in a 10 gallon QT 

2. Water parameters of the 46
a. Ammonia? 0
b. Nitrite? 0
c. Nitrate? 30
d. pH, KH and GH? Ph is low, below 6. My water is super soft and I've always had low PH .. I don't have a GH/KH kit 
e. Test kit? API Master Test Kit

3. Temperature? 78

4. FW (fresh water) or BW (brackish)? FW

5. How long the aquarium has been set up? It was set up in my old house for over a year. I moved on 02/01/14 and took 20 gallons of the aquarium water with me in a rubbermaid tote and buckets

6. What fish do you have? How many are in your tank? How big are they? How long have you had them? 1 parkinsoni rainbow, 1 bolivian ram, 2 sunset gouramis, 8 bentosi tetras, 3 glass catfish, 5 julii corydoras, 10 pygmy/hasbrosus corydoras, 1 BN pleco full size, 7 neon tetras

7. Were the fish placed under quarantine period (minus the first batch from the point wherein the tank is ready to accommodate the inhabitants)? all of the South American fish were in their own tank and I had to combine the 2 tanks due to moving and I haven't been able to get their 55 up and running due to renovations. 

8. a. Any live plants? Fake plants? Moderately planted 
b. Sand, gravel, barebottom? Pool Filter Sand
c. Rocks, woods, fancy decors? Any hollow decors? 1 large rock with 

9. a. Filtration? Eheim 2215 AND 2217
b. Heater? Hydor ETH 200 (or is it at 201? I can never remember) on output of 2215

10. a. Lighting schedule? What lights are used? Coralife dual t5 high output 8 hours dual 6500 bulb
b. Any sunlight exposure? How long? No

11. a. Water change schedule? 20% every 10-14 days
b. Volume of water changed? see above
c. Well water, tap water, RO water? City water with prime
d. Water conditioner used? prime
e. Frequency of gravel/sand (if any) vacuumed? every time I water change I gravel vac open areas and corners

12. Foods? Kens Fish catfish pellets and regular flake food
How often are they fed? 1.5x a day (small pinch when my rainbow looks famished)

13. a. Any abnormal signs/symptoms? Cloudy eyes, she's scared so her fins are always in "attack" mode. She looks sick. She seriously looks like a dead fish but she's swimming around. Breathing from the surface like normal and eating well. She also has a red spot on her rear area on 1 side.

b. Appearance of poop? She hasn't pooped yet
c. Appearance of gills? clamped, not flowing back and forth like normal

14. a. Have you treated your fish ahead of diagnosis? No, waiting on someone with more knowledge than myself.
b. What meds were used?

15. Insert photos of fish in question and full tank shot if necessary.

*PHOTO ONSLAUGHT!!!!*

Frontal









Left side (Notice the *RED* Blotch

















Belly









Rear









Right










This is her tank mate. Both females. They get along GREAT. You can notice the color difference. She has a lot more color but I'm honestly concerned with the coloration around her gill on her Right side. It looks like she got an injury.



























I am sorry for the blurry ness but I had to go extreme zoom on my Galaxy S3 and both fish like to hide in the back corner of the tank. Please let me know if I need to quarentine her sister too (ok so she might not be sister but I got them from the same tank a year ago at The Wet Spot PDX)


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## Sylverclaws (Jul 16, 2012)

Looks like you have a few things going on here. Your girly has cloudy-eye and one of those with the damaged fins has fin-rot. There's a red spot on one that could be several things...parasite, start of a fungal infection or a bacterial infection...Someone may know exactly. 

What you need to do is clean the tank about 30% once a week, best to have it on a scheduled day. You have a lot of fish in your tank, therefor it needs routine cleaning or you risk a lot of problems like this. 

Who has been picking at your gourami's? You may need to find them a new home, or remove the ones stressing them out and causing them to stay in "Attack mode" and damaging fins. Something has stressed them out and likely lowered their immune systems allowing these nasties to take hold. 

Find something that can treat fungal and bacterial infections(that should help with the cloudy-eye too as it's bacterial) and use it on your gourami's in your QT tank. You can try a mix of pimafix and melafix, but I'd suggest something stronger, like the maracyn duo.


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## Aurie (Jun 22, 2012)

The red spot has subsided and is now just an area with uneven scales. Her fins haven't gotten worse, nor has her cloudy eyes but she's eating the best she can for being blinded and is finding some flakes along the bottom of her QT. I started her on Maracyn and maracyn 2 and I'll do that for 3 more days and see if that helps her out. At the end I'll do a water change and if she doesn't get any better after a couple days with clean water then I'll use the rest of the box on it. Her old tank mate seems to be doing ok. The area around her gill seems to be the same. I still don't know what this is but the fin rot and coudy eye seem bacterial and I hope this round of anti biotics help. If it doesn't work I don't know what other medicine to try. I have a local fish store that carries most all medicines I could ever need so if anyone is reading this and has something else to suggest I'm all ears.


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## Flint (Oct 22, 2013)

Do those look like males to anyone other than me?


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## Crazyfish (Feb 3, 2014)

Flint said:


> Do those look like males to anyone other than me?


Dorsal fins look pointy to me... I'd say they are males but that's all I have to go by


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## Flint (Oct 22, 2013)

That's what I was seeing, crazyfish. I'd vote these are both male based on the research I just did. Females almost always have a brown line running down their side. Also, females aren't sold often due to the lack of color so getting them at a place like the wet spot, I can almost guarantee you have males. This would be the cause of the aggression. They are likely fighting for territory.


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## Aurie (Jun 22, 2012)

I used to have a 3rd fish and I know it was a male because he had a black front and he terrorized these 2 fish, well the whole tank really . When I removed him these 2 fish started swimming together and acting (for lack of a better term) like BFFs so if they are males they get along very well. They also did have a large black stripe but it faded and the one in the last photo still has it but it is faded. They each have either own corner of a 46 gallon and I've never seen the craziness of that first fish. No chasing, nipping. The second fish was actually helping the first fish keep afloat before I pulled it out. 

When I brought them home the females looked like that bottom picture and the male looked like the top. Just yellow lol
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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