Help with lethargic honey gourami

[Neonlights]

My female honey gourami is very lethargic and I don’t know what’s wrong with her. She spends a lot of time sitting in plants (like a clownfish) and sometimes lies on her side. I haven’t seen her eat for 2 days but she moves from spot to spiit sometimes and goes to the surface to breath. She’s about 2yrs old.

My water parameters are consistent with what they’ve been for the past year or more:
pH: 7.5
NH: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
KH: 8
GH: 16
Temp: 76

I did a 40% water change last night but no significant improvement today. Diet is micro crumb. The only thing I did differently was 2 weeks ago I gave frozen blood worm but the gourami was fine after that and I don’t even remember seeing her eat it. No signs of illness or injury.

 

[GaryE]

I don't think there's anything anyone could point to as a cause, but she appears bloated and swollen in the photo, and that suggests an internal bacterial infection.

The only hope is with antibiotics, but in most places they aren't readily available, and choosing what type of antibiotic would work for the specific infection is guesswork. The situation doesn't look good.

 

[Neonlights]

She actually isn’t bloated, that’s a bad photo where a plant is cropping part of the body making it appear bloated. I hate it when I can’t help my fish, it’s been a long time since I’ve lost one.

 

[GaryE]

Not being able to help a fish is an awful feeling. You have to beware though as several of the common remedies (***fix types) do very little but make you feel you're doing something. It sometimes seems there's always someone predatory waiting to take your money when you simply want to do the right thing.

Regular weekly water changing is about all you can go with now. Fish are like us - random things go wrong in them.