Gourami seizure

[Louise73]

i have lost 2 gouramis today within hours of each other.
Healthy looking pearl had what looks like a seizure and died. Several hours later same thing happened to my blue gourami.
I have been treating my tank for the past 7 days as my blue gourami had popeye. I was advised to add aquarium salt and use half strength metfix (half strength as I have corys and clown loaches)
Water tests done today after the first gourami died were ok except nitrates elevated, presume from metfix.
I did a 20% water change after I lost both fish, added prime to the water.

 

[Colin_T]

Do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean immediately.

Do not add anymore medication or salt until we know what is going on.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

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How big is the aquarium?
How much salt did you add to the aquarium?
How long has the aquarium been set up for?

What is metfix? is it Melafix?

Can you post a picture of the sick and or dead fish? And a short video of any fish acting strangely might help?

 

[NickAu]

Melafix

Melafix and the watered down betta fix are rubbish and thats where they belong, It can damage Labyrinth organs

 

[Louise73]

Do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean immediately.

Do not add anymore medication or salt until we know what is going on.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

--------------------
How big is the aquarium?
How much salt did you add to the aquarium?
How long has the aquarium been set up for?

What is metfix? is it Melafix?

Can you post a picture of the sick and or dead fish? And a short video of any fish acting strangely might help?

Yes sorry Melafix.
Tank is 400lts. Has been going for almost 3years.

Was advised by aquarium store the following due to blue gourami had popeye. They said to treat the entire tank not just the gourami.
1tspn salt per 40lts
5ml Melafix per 400lts daily for 7 days then 20% water change.
Prime is added to water prior to placing in the tank.

 

[Louise73]

Melafix and the watered down betta fix are rubbish and thats where they belong, It can damage Labyrinth organs

I have just googled about this, and perhaps you are correct. Very disappointed in my local aquarium shop if that is the case. I was trying to save my gourami not kill it.

 

[Colin_T]

Popeye is usually caused by bacteria and is most commonly seen in tanks with lots of organic matter (rotting gunk in the gravel and dirty filters).

I would stop using melafix and salt and just do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean every day for a week. Clean the filter and wipe the inside of the glass too. Then see how they do. The big water changes will dilute harmful pathogens in the water and cleaning the gravel will remove the gunk that can encourage bacterial infections.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the aquarium.

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You mention using 1tspn of salt, is that 1 teaspoon or 1 tablespoon of salt per 40litres?
I normally use salt at 1 heaped tablespoon of salt per 20 litres for treating fish.

I haven't looked at Melafix for a while because I never had much success using it or Pimafix. What is the dose rate on it? I ask because 5ml per 400 litres seems a bit low.

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If you can post a pic of the fish it can help identify other possible problems.

 

[Louise73]

Popeye is usually caused by bacteria and is most commonly seen in tanks with lots of organic matter (rotting gunk in the gravel and dirty filters).

I would stop using melafix and salt and just do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean every day for a week. Clean the filter and wipe the inside of the glass too. Then see how they do. The big water changes will dilute harmful pathogens in the water and cleaning the gravel will remove the gunk that can encourage bacterial infections.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the aquarium.

----------------------
You mention using 1tspn of salt, is that 1 teaspoon or 1 tablespoon of salt per 40litres?
I normally use salt at 1 heaped tablespoon of salt per 20 litres for treating fish.

I haven't looked at Melafix for a while because I never had much success using it or Pimafix. What is the dose rate on it? I ask because 5ml per 400 litres seems a bit low.

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If you can post a pic of the fish it can help identify other possible problems.

Yes 1teaspoon salt per 40ltrs
Melafix was diluted that way due to the clown loaches and corys in the tank, this was advised by local aquarium shop.
I have done 20% water change and cleaned off glass already, gravel cleaned too.
Unfortunately as both gouramis died including the one with popeye I have no photos.
I have stopped salt and melafix now also.

 

[Colin_T]

1 teaspoon of salt per 40 litres is not going to do anything to treat fish diseases.

If you want to use salt to treat fish, use 1 heaped tablespoon of rock salt, sea salt or swimming pool salt per 20 litres of tank water. Keep this salt level for at least 2 weeks after the fish have recovered.
This level of salt is fine for all freshwater fishes, altho wild caught angelfish, discus and Corydoras don't like it. But unless you are keeping wild caught fishes, the fish in your tank should be fine with that level of salt.

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Diluting Melafix is not going to help either. It is made from tea tree oil and is considered safe for all fish (fresh and salt water). However, later research showed it could cause problems to labyrinth fishes (gouramis & bettas). However, it needs to be used at full strength to do anything, and even then, I have never had much success using it (or Pimafix) to treat anything. It does make your tank smell like eucalyptus tho

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Just do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean each day for a week and see how they go. After a week of daily 75% water changes, you can reduce them to 50% each week.

Fish live in a soup of bacteria, fungus, virus, protozoans and other microscopic organisms. Doing small 20% water changes doesn't do anything to clean the tank because you are only removing a small portion of these pathogens. Doing bigger water changes dilutes them more effectively and reduces their numbers so there are fewer organisms in the water that can affect the fish.

Fish having seizures or spinning out of control is just about always a protozoan infection and the easiest way to reduce protozoans in the water is big water changes and gravel cleaning.

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Assuming you have a power filter, you should also clean the filter asap to remove any gunk from it. Wash filter materials in a bucket of tank water and wash the filter case, impellor and housing under tap water. Power filters should be done once a month in average tanks and more often in tanks with lots of fish or with big fish.