Blue Gourami won't eat and is reclusive

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haydenater

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Dec 2, 2020
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Location
Washington DC
Tank size: 29 gallons
tank age: 5 months
pH: ~ 7
ammonia: 0
nitrite:
nitrate:
tank temp: 75 fahrenheit


Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): I had this blue gourami, a dwarf gourami, 5 serpae tetras, 8 neon tetras, a pepper cory, an olocinclus, and an albino Plecostomus in the tank. The gouramis were the second additions, and I have had them perfectly fine for about 4 months. After thanksgiving, when I left a food stone in the tank, I came back and did a water change of about 15%. I also added 4 new artifical plants during the water change and replaced the filter - was that too much to change at once? I treated the added water with stress coat and strezz zyme. I have done this plenty of times since I have had the tank and it has never been a problem. After the water change, I noticed a serpae had some white stuff on the front of him, and he was super lethargic, and he died this morning, about 4 days later.

My blue gourami LOOKS fine, but he is more lethargic than usual, staying only in the corners of the tank usually. He also has only eaten a couple flakes of food in the last couple days, when normally he is voracious and eats the most.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 15 - 20% every 2 - 3 weeks

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: stress zyme every 1-1.5 weeks

Here are some pictures of the gourami as of now:

1606918650171.png1606918787161.jpeg
1606918732369.png


Thank you to anyone who can help!
 
Welcome to the forum.
Ill just push this back to the top in the hope that someone with more knowledge than me notices it (That’s everyone btw).
They’ll probably advise a huge water change as your first option. The general advice on here is to do a 50% water change weekly.
 
First off and this may only be me and my opinion the three spot or blue gourami gets too big for a 29 gallon. You don't want to mix certain gourami types like you have in your tank. And it would be better for the three spot (yours is a male) to have a couple of females in a larger tank together. Gouramies and bettas are similar in their intelligence and what they need to keep mentally and physically healthy, but they are different in their own ways in setups to keep them that way. Three spots are more sociable and need others of their own species to keep them company, but two males can fight.
 
My guess would be that it had something to do with changing the entire filter and water change at the same time. I try and change my filter at the very middle in between my water changes. I'm no expert but gourami's I find very sensitive, I've never had much luck with them. Anyways my guess would be the combination of filter + water changes at the same time may have altered the parameters a bit much for the gourami's. Also what filter media or packs are you using? If you are using pouches be sure to rinse them before adding them in the filter.
 
My guess would be that it had something to do with changing the entire filter and water change at the same time. I try and change my filter at the very middle in between my water changes. I'm no expert but gourami's I find very sensitive, I've never had much luck with them. Anyways my guess would be the combination of filter + water changes at the same time may have altered the parameters a bit much for the gourami's. Also what filter media or packs are you using? If you are using pouches be sure to rinse them before adding them in the filter.
Thank you for the tips everyone. This is what I am thinking it is, although I am not sure why the dwarf gourami isn't affected. That's something I will definitely take into more account in the future. I am (probably obviously) a beginner at this and this the first real problem I have encountered.
I'll see how he eats this evening, hopefully he does.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum :)

How long has the gourami's mouth been puffed up for?

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Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Post some more pictures of the gourami, make sure they are in focus.

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When you clean the filter, wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

If you replace filter pads/ cartridges, you get rid of the good filter bacteria and cause ammonia and nitrite problems that can killifish.

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Labyrinth fishes (Gouramis & Bettas) are territorial and fight with each other. You only want one species of labyrinth fish per tank. Having two different types of gourami will end badly with the blue gourami killing the dwarf gourami.
 

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