Gourami's Look Great But Stop Eating And Die - Help!

[welchrock]

In the last month this has happened to me three times:

Three gourami's, one opaline, two platinum...look perfectly fine but stop eating and slow down their activity level. Their fins are still extended (not clamped) and they have no visible signs of disease or illness. They may seem slightly bloated but it is barely noticable if even truely a symptom.

They are not harassed but seem to stay away from others if possible, and react negatively to feedings. Not only do they not eat, but they seem stressed by others eating and show no interest in food.

The first one this happened to was an opaline - it was just that fish and I think may have been a result of it eating a weakened but undiagnosed black neon tetra.

HOWEVER, the last two illnesses and deaths have occurred at the same time, with niether fish giving me any idea of what may have caused their illness.

I don't think they are ill and then starving, but more that their illness is killing them WHILE they're not eating. The entire cycle of the problem, from perfectly healthy to not eating to dead, is about a week or less.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR ANY AND ALL HELP THAT CAN BE PROVIDED! I hope you all have/are having a great weekend.

Jeff

 

[confusion]

What are the stats of your water (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, temp), and what is the size of your tank?

My initial guess is some kind of internal parasite or protozoan like this http/animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/info...es.htm#Hexamita

Are there other fish in the tank? Did you buy all of the fish from the same place?

 

[Fenjer]

What are you feeding the fish?

My gourami's wont touch flake and do get upset at the other fish zooming around to catch it all.

If you're really worried try separating the fish when feeding, keep the gourami's in a breeding net or tub in the water until they eat some thing,

I did this with my chocolate gouramis so that they got a share of the blood worm.

Seems to work for them.

You don't want to stress them by chasing them around the tank to put them in a confined space to feed them though,

Jen

 

[welchrock]

thank you both for responded. i'll address what both of you suggested in this post.

i'm feeding the fish a (supposedly) top-of-the-line flake food. it comes in small discs, designed to eliminate uneaten small particles. they seem to love it but i'm sure they could easily love something else even more.

they're in a 46G bowfront tank, that has been quite stable for about 3 months. as for further statistics - the pH is always a very nice 7.2-7.4. never had any problems there. temp is 80-81 at all times. the other levels i have no idea - i should have a kit but with some of my older tanks, whenever i've had fish die and i've had the water tested at a pet store, its been because of issues other than nitrates, ammonia etc.

the problem-gourami's have been in there for 2 months with no problems up until now...and I have not introduced any new fish in nearly as long. so while i am open to the idea that my problems may be caused by a parasite or similar, i don't know how something like that would have been introduced to the tank.



probably too much information but here's what i have in the tank, being filtered by a magnum 350: 1 snakeskin gourami (7 inches), 2 medium sized platinum gourami's, 3 small opaline gourami's, 8 black neon tetra's and 3 small peppered cory's.