Dwarf Gourami Sitting At Bottom Of Tank

[willquinn]

I have an orange dwarf gourami sitting at the bottom of the tank. He doesn't move much, was listing to one side at one point and didn't run away when the other gourami started picking at him. Normally it's the other way round, the orange gourami will usually bully the blue dwarf gourami. His repiration also seems to be very fast with his gills and mouth moving quickly. Where his head would normally be a silvery colour it has blackened a little bit. He would pop up to the surface occasionally for air and then swim back down again.

The tank is a fully cycled tank which has been up and running for a little over 6 months. It is a 70-80L tank, well planted with mostly real plants and a few plastic. I hadn't changed the water in at least a month so immediately did a 50% water change. I don't currently have a testing kit for nitrates and nitrites but did a test for ammonia, of which there was none. I have an internal power filter which I cleaned yesterday as well in the old tank water, no aeration as such but the water at the surface moves around with the current from the power filter.

I'm about to go and buy myself a quarantine/hospital tank as some of the other tetra may not be well. The 6 of the tetras are fine, another is very pale looking has lost a lot of his colour and isn't as lively as the others, appears to be eating ok though. The other tetra has a white fungus growing around it's back fin.

I'm pretty sure water quality has been an issue in exacerbating the symptoms, however now that some fish are sick, is changing the water enough or will I need to medicate?

I'm worried that fish TB could be an issue with the gourami, apparently it is more common in the labrynth species such as gourami's and bettas.

It's probably important to add that when I first setup the tank I hadn't cycled it and added a few fish, one of which was this orange gourami. He was sick back then as well, with ammonia burns but I managed to control it by changing water everyday for a month until tank had cycled. He recovered as well as the other fish and all seemed happy until last night.

My brother also recently added 2 new fish (forget species) but would have been tank cleaners. Within a few days both had completely disappeared without a trace. I think they died and the other fish ate them but can't be sure. I do have a cover on the tank so they didn't jump out.

I'm starting to worry that by not quarantining new fish they have introduced infections to my tank.

Anyway any advice would be much appreciated. I think I will continue to change the water 20% daily for a week or so and maybe get a quarantine tank as well.

 

[glolite]

The last paragraph is a good idea. Also it would be a good idea to get a nitrIte test kit, as if you haven't done a water change for a while, nitrite may well have built up in the tank. As the tank is cycled and been running for a while, any ammonia is probably being processed by the filter media but nitrite often causes the poor water quality and therefore fish problems occur.

I would continue with the water changes as you said and test daily for ammonia and nitrites, doing extra water changes if necessary.

Perhaps treat with an anti fungus medication for the tetra. Pimafix is good or eSHa 2000 which covers fungus, and bacterial infections and is only a 3 day treatment.

 

[willquinn]

Thanks for replying. Managed to get a liquid test kit for nitrates and nitrites. Ammonia levels were ok as I already had a test kit for that. The Nitrite level was zero but the Nitrates were off the scale! I've changed the water again today, 50%. I also bought a quarantine tank, took a bit of the filter media from the old tank and put it in the new filter. I added stress plus, aquarium salts and the Pets at Home own brand fish disease treatment (for fin rot etc). I put the Gourami into that tank and within a few hours the little guy has perked up to no end! He's not yet perfect, still a bit lethargic, but he is no longer sitting on the bottom of the tank.

Sadly I lost a Tetra, had died before I got back from LFS, although the rest of the fish are more active and the neons are shining brightly again. I've added some stress plus and a little bit of aquarium salts to the main tank as well.

Things are looking good again, thats what you get for neglecting a tank I suppose. The tank was clean enough with little to no algae so I had wrongly assumed good water quality. I won't be making that mistake again anytime soon.

 

[glolite]

If you've neglected the tank for a little while, which most of us do from time to time, try doing small water changes, 10% daily for a week then go back to your usual weekly changes. The fish sound as though they are recovering, which is good news

 

[willquinn]

Unfortuneately the gourami has kicked the bucket. Went down this morning to look in the quarantine tank and he was lying on the bottom dead as a dodo. Probably for the best anyway as he was a bully in the tank and I shouldn't really have put two male dwarf gourami's in the tank anyway.

Did another water test and Ammonia is 0, Nitrites are 0 and Nitrates are 5. Tested both main tank and quarantine tank. Very similar results in both. Will wait a while before I get anymore fish just to be sure the tank is healthy. Thanks for all your help and advice.