What's wrong with my gourami fish?

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Cadyhasfish

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So I walked into my room about to change the water and my gourami fish started swimming in fast circles freakin out, then fell limp. It has done this a couple times now, but is mostly limp. It'll spasm when another fish tries to pick at it. It's a 20 gallon tank with many snails and 8 other small fish. when I got the levels checked yesterday, the lady said ph was good, most everything was kinda low, and that just a water change would help. This little guy is pretty much gone I guess, but I don't know what happened or why. Thanks for any help
 
Go and do a water change right now; clean water is the best first aid for fish! Change a good 75 or 80%, making sure the new water is warmed and dechlorinated; don't forget to switch your heater and filter off first, and back on again afterwards. Do not touch or clean anything in the filter at the moment.

Once you've done that, we'll have a chat about what might be going on and how to help you move forward but your gourami needs clean water ASAP :)
 
It could be a stroke, or a protozoan infection that has gotten into the brain, or a chemical that has poisoned the fish. However, chemical poisoning usually affects more than 1 fish and occurs shortly after you do a water change or treat the fish, or if something has gotten into the air in the room (paint fumes, bug spray, etc).

Fish do have strokes, basically a blood vessel pops in their brain and they can spiral out of control or just sink to the bottom and die. It isn't very common but can happen.

Protozoan infections are the most common cause of this sort of problem. Make sure you do regular water changes and gravel clean the substrate each time you do a water change. Big 50-90% water changes are much more effective at diluting poor water quality and harmful pathogens in the tank. I usually do 75% water changes and complete gravel cleans each week. It's also a good idea to wipe the inside of the glass down every week to reduce the biofilm on the glass.

If you have a power filter make sure you clean it once a month. Take the filter apart and wash the filter materials out in a couple of buckets of tank water. Then reassemble the filter and get it working again.

Fish that start to spiral out of control generally do not live long after they show the symptoms.
 
So I walked into my room about to change the water and my gourami fish started swimming in fast circles freakin out, then fell limp. It has done this a couple times now, but is mostly limp. It'll spasm when another fish tries to pick at it. It's a 20 gallon tank with many snails and 8 other small fish. when I got the levels checked yesterday, the lady said ph was good, most everything was kinda low, and that just a water change would help. This little guy is pretty much gone I guess, but I don't know what happened or why. Thanks for any help

Ok first, “pH is good and everything else is kinda low” tells us nothing.
In order to help you we need actual numbers. PH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and water hardness. Is the tank planted, how long has it been running, what kind of cycle did you do, fish in or fishless. Once we have those we can begin to discuss what might be wrong with your fish. Also, what kind of gourami and what are the small fish he is with?

Go back to the store and get your own test kit. Liquid or strip, liquid is better but strip is fine as long as they test pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Hardness you can get online from your local municipal water website. If you don’t want to do that, then have the store test for you and request the actual numbers of all this. It’s irrisponsible to give advise on a sick fish until we know these details. Except sayings a massive water change is called for because that is usually the first step in any recovery and can’t hurt.
 

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