Another Dead Dwarf Gourami

[This Old Spouse]

Just pulled my third dead dwarf gourami out of the water. This time I must have pulled it out moments after it died. It was missing one of his feelers and had a large dime-sized lump on his side. I tried to get a photo of it and I think you get the idea of how it looked.
General water hardness = 60
Carbonate Hardness = 0
pH = 6.0
Nitrite = .5 ppm
Nitrate = 40 ppm
Ammonia = 0

I am so confused and upset by this. I also discovered what I think is beard algae on two of my plants.

Any help?

 

[This Old Spouse]

 

[electropunk06]

Hi sorry for your losses
How long have you had the DG's for?
Did the others show similar symptoms?
Lloyd

 

[chesterscot]

If the stocking in your sig is right I suspect the cause of death maybe your stocking of 2 males with only one female. It should be the other way round as the males will often die of exhaustion fighting each other


Oh you need more female mollys as well befor they go down the same road

regards


oh and another problem is the guppy sex ratios

 

[karin]

Any level of nitrite is too high and poisonous to fish, this is the most likely cause of fish death. You need to do a very big water change to get your nitrite reading to zero (80%) and then recheck. Then maintain it there so do your water testing daily for at least a week and water change any time you see anything other than zero...for nitrite or ammonia.

You don't say how long the tank has been set up for. If a long time, it may be that something has caused a bit of a mini cycle like a malfunctioning filter, a filter that is turned off, or a filter that has been cleaned to aggressively.

If this is a new tank you will need to test more than a week. You would be doing a fishless cycle, cycling the tank to build the appropriate biological colonies in your filter. If this is the case, get over to the New Freshwater Tank section and read the information in "Beginner's Resources." about cycling and particularly fish-in cycling. Then ask lots more questions there.

 

[woody88]

I agree with karin. How long has the tank been running? Nitrite should be 0. and your PH is a little low imo.

 

[This Old Spouse]

The tank has been set up since the first of October. The two remaining males were NOT aggressive toward each other or any of the other fish. The first two DGs that died (about a month ago) each showed bloody patches for several days before they died. This one showed NO symptoms at all, but when I pulled him out he had the large lump on him. I just did a 20% water change yesterday and cleaned half the filter medium in the water I took out. I do this every two weeks.

I'm trying to post an excellent photo of him that my husband took. It really shows the big lump on his side.

 

[woody88]

That's new to me. Firstly tho you need to get your Nitrite level down as that still could be the cause of your probs. If the tank has been running for a few months then it should've defo finished its cycle by now so you should only have a very low reading of nitrate depending on how many water changes you do. I personally do a 20% change every week and even tho my tank is overstocked, my fish seem happy and healthy.

Keep a close eye on your fish and look out for any aggression and keep doing weekly tests

Are you buying your fish from a good source?

Just checked your profile! Keep an eye on those tiger barbs [should be ok as they're in a group] but can be fin nippers

 

[woody88]

Regarding your algae! Is your tank located near a window or strong light source. What lighting are you running [grow lamps,etc]

If you aint seen your pleck for nearly a month then fear the worst. If you've got decor in your tank you'll probably find him rotting somewhere and that will push your levels up.

Regarding your algae! Is your tank located near a window or strong light source. What lighting are you running [grow lamps,etc]

If you aint seen your pleck for nearly a month then fear the worst. If you've got decor in your tank you'll probably find him rotting somewhere and that will push your levels up.

Sorry to be a bit blunt! RIP Pleck

 

[This Old Spouse]

I think what probably happened with the Pleco is that it jumped out of the tank and my cat ate him. There was just no evidence of him anywhere, and one would think my ammonia levels would have risen if he was still in the tank?

I even spent some time a couple weeks ago moving some of my larger rocks around to see if it was hiding in there but not a trace to be found.

The lighting is what came with the aquarium. It's says GE Plant & Aquarium 15 watt. I have two of them on my 55 gallon. There is some sunlight that comes in the afternoon, but I put paper over that side of the tank and that seems to have solved that problem.

The tiger barbs are reasonably peaceful. I barely know the tetras are there. I'm just so upset that these beautiful DGs are dying off.

Thanks so much everyone!