Gouramis Slowly Dying Off...3 Down...3 Left!

[Benson112]

Im starting to panic a touch here people. Now im not the most experienced in keeping these fish so please bare with me if i am doing anything wrong.

I have lost yet another of my gouramis. One of my longest standing inhabitant of my tank (orange dwarf gourami) passed away this morning. He has not looked himself for a long time now (about a month) spending alot of his time at the bottom of the tank in the corner behind a plant and was getting a bit bloated and not swimming as well as he could. last night he was laying on the bottom of the tank upside down so i figured he was close to the end. I put him in the hospital tank as the other fish were picking on him and this morning he is dead

Now...around 2 weeks ago i randomly lost one of the Cherry / honey (cant remember) gourami's, fine one day then dead the next! And his partner in crime is looking decidedly orange and pale instead of the lovely red colour he used to be. The other gourami died within a day of putting him in the tank so i am presuming he had issues anyway / the water was not to his liking.

I have checked my water and it seems fine (dont have the stat, ill do it again later and let you know) and i do a 30% water change weekly. I am now worried that my favourite (you may remember the blue gourami that got stuck in an ornament and got injured) is going to go the same way! Is there anything i can do to help prevent this?

 

[Davo86]

you say the one was bloated, it could therefore be a bacterial condition wiping them out,
Paleness is usually caused when the fish are stressed, either due to aggression or water quality problems

what are you currently feeding them
Also obviously post the parameters when you can

 

[Benson112]

you say the one was bloated, it could therefore be a bacterial condition wiping them out,
Paleness is usually caused when the fish are stressed, either due to aggression or water quality problems

what are you currently feeding them
Also obviously post the parameters when you can

I will get the parametes up around 6pm ish when i get home, should have come armed with this today! apologies.

I feed them on tropical fish flakes...nothing else. I was feeding them once a day and they seem to leave alot of food left over so i have cut this down to once every 2 days. None of them are bothered about food time, they dont even swim up to the surface for get it for a while, they wait till it floats down to them! They never used to do this, the tetras used to be straight onto it.

 

[Davo86]

flake is notorious for causing bloat in tropical fish, for the next few days try feeding them only the inside of peas, these should relieve any problems that any of the other fish maybe suffering from. you could also try supplementing their diet, frozen prepared foods such as Brineshrimp or Daphnia

 

[Benson112]

Thanks very much for that mate, ill try the pea idea.

A little more info on this...you say the inside of peas...so i presume taking the outer shell type bit off them. Do they need to be cooked or just thawed (i have frozen peas), how many should i give them? How often? And how long should i keep this up for without using flakes?

Sorry for all the questions. Thanks for your help

 

[Davo86]

drop the peas in a cup of boiling water and just squeeze the inside bit out. if your fish are fairly small dice up the peas as much as you can and see if the gouramis all take some,
try starting of with say 2-3 and watch to see if its all eaten, remove any excess, repeat this for 2-3 days and then continue with flake supllemented with other foods and i would also feed the peas once per week

 

[Benson112]

Ok thanks for your help mate, i will give it a go and get back to you with results!

 

[Athena]

You might also want to treat the tank with an anti-bacterial treatment to help prevent your other fish dying off.

I think that apart from good tank conditions, a varied diet always helps keep fish in top health. I feed my dwarf gourami a mix of the following:

frozen foods (bloodworm,daphnia, brine shrimp, tubiflex worms etc)
Live foods (e.g. brine shrimp)
Dried foods (daphnia, brine shrimp, algae wafers)
Jelly foods (daphnia, brine shrimp)
Flake food
Peas

He gets fed several times a day (only feed a little at a time in order not to pollute the tank) - a different food each time. In fact, this is how I feed all my fish. I never feed them the same thing twice in a day - always a variety - and give the crushed pea about once a week to aid their digestion.

If you buy any of the live foods such as the brine shrimp, it's best to empty them into a bowl and then using your tank net, scoop out a few at a time and add to the tank. Once you see that they've all been eaten, you can add another few, and so on until the fish lose interest and stop feeding. Any remaining live food can be kept in a fridge and used the next day.

Hope that helps.

Athena

 

[Benson112]

You might also want to treat the tank with an anti-bacterial treatment to help prevent your other fish dying off.

I think that apart from good tank conditions, a varied diet always helps keep fish in top health. I feed my dwarf gourami a mix of the following:

frozen foods (bloodworm,daphnia, brine shrimp, tubiflex worms etc)
Live foods (e.g. brine shrimp)
Dried foods (daphnia, brine shrimp, algae wafers)
Jelly foods (daphnia, brine shrimp)
Flake food
Peas

He gets fed several times a day (only feed a little at a time in order not to pollute the tank) - a different food each time. In fact, this is how I feed all my fish. I never feed them the same thing twice in a day - always a variety - and give the crushed pea about once a week to aid their digestion.

If you buy any of the live foods such as the brine shrimp, it's best to empty them into a bowl and then using your tank net, scoop out a few at a time and add to the tank. Once you see that they've all been eaten, you can add another few, and so on until the fish lose interest and stop feeding. Any remaining live food can be kept in a fridge and used the next day.

Hope that helps.

Athena

That is extremely helpful thanks very much!

 

[Benson112]

slightly late but just finished a water change (after a few hours of watching prison break lol) and here are the stats:

Ph - 7.6
Amonia - 0
nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 40

 

[Benson112]

Sorry guys, i posted this really late so just wanted to bump it back up the list lol

Also, i fed the fish peas for the first time last night, they loved them!! Ive got a vid of Tabby (my blue dwarf gourami) chasing a bit about spitting it out and chasing it again lol. Thanks for all the advise everyone, as you can see the only thing for me to worry about with regards to parameters is nitrate. Is this worryingly high or acceptable? If its high, how can i lower it? Just more water changes?

Here is the vid link if you are interested: http/uk.youtube.com/watch?v=N3-qJCg6JK4

 

[Rutters19]

Sorry guys, i posted this really late so just wanted to bump it back up the list lol

Also, i fed the fish peas for the first time last night, they loved them!! Ive got a vid of Tabby (my blue dwarf gourami) chasing a bit about spitting it out and chasing it again lol. Thanks for all the advise everyone, as you can see the only thing for me to worry about with regards to parameters is nitrate. Is this worryingly high or acceptable? If its high, how can i lower it? Just more water changes?

Here is the vid link if you are interested: [URL="http/uk.youtube.com/watch?v=N3-qJCg6JK4"]http/uk.youtube.com/watch?v=N3-qJCg6JK4[/URL]

Your nitrate level is absolutely fine, nothing to worry about at all.

If you do want to lower it then like you suggested just do more water changes