Hi Twinklecaz
Saw your note to me on that other forum message so thought I'd reply here. Sorry to hear your gourami didn't survive. I had a look at the photos and agree that they both look sickly, quite thin and boney and nothing much like the honey gourami's at my LFS. Do a Google search on them and you'll see loads of pics on just how a healthy one should look.
I went through all your posts and made a note of everything you said that was wrong with your gourami:
Listless (hiding/resting behind filter etc)
pale
tiny red marks
droopy tail
cloudy eyes
split tail
wobbly swimming
dark body/head before death
I suspect this was a fungal infection that lead to bacterial at a later stage. Fungal infections start off with weight loss despite the fish continuing to eat. Then it affects their swimming. They can develop tiny ulcers and their fins become torn/ragged-looking. Sometimes this is caused from their abnormal swimming behaviour causing them to catch their fins on tank objects, or it can be from the bacterial infection itself.
As I mentioned in that other forum post, the darkening of the body and head just before death is where the internal organs are infected and rupturing.
Do you have any Protozin or equivalent medication that you can begin treating your other fish with?
With these things it is difficult to treat because they are internal and usually by the time you notice something is wrong with the fish, a lot of damage has been done inside them already. But you never know - sometimes it's possible to stop it in its tracks if you act quickly enough.
As they say, prevention is better than cure (and a lot cheaper too LOL). So it's important to try to find out what has caused this in the first place. Actually, if you say those photos were taken when you bought the fish, then more than likely they already had the start of something nasty at that time as they don't look in tip top condition to me.
When you buy fish from your LFS try to check them over before accepting them. If they show any outward signs of looking abnormal in any way, even if they just look a bit thin compared to others in the tank - ask the assistant to net you another one. You don't have to accept the fish just because they've netted it. If you're able to watch the tank for 5-10 mins to observe them all in the tank you will often be able to spot those that look healthy - and those that don't. Personally, it puts me off buying a fish if there are sickly fish in the tank aswell.
The other bit of advice I'd give is not to go over the top with water changes. Some of the advice I read on these forums scares me because some would have you doing a water change every day! Really not necessary and it doesn't do your filter bacteria any good as you then starve them of the ammonia that they need to survive.
I think some people think that once their tank is cycled then the more water changes they do the healthier their tank will be...but that only leads to the filter bacteria dying off, which defeats the whole purpose of cycling it in the first place LOL
A well-maintained tank with an appropriate filter, adequate stock, no overfeeding etc etc doesn't really need more than a 25% water change every fortnight.
The problem most of us have at the early stages is reaching that status quo - the point at which everything is stable and unchanging.
Remember, though, that as your stock levels change, so will your filter bacteria levels. Whenever you add any fish to your tank you are then making a change and your filter needs to adapt to this change.
Large water changes of, say, 50% are only really needed at times when there's chemical spikes or certain illnesses present (e.g. fin rot is helped by small, regular water changes).
Well, I think that's enough from me for now LOL - gosh, don't I go on
Regards, Athena
Saw your note to me on that other forum message so thought I'd reply here. Sorry to hear your gourami didn't survive. I had a look at the photos and agree that they both look sickly, quite thin and boney and nothing much like the honey gourami's at my LFS. Do a Google search on them and you'll see loads of pics on just how a healthy one should look.
I went through all your posts and made a note of everything you said that was wrong with your gourami:
Listless (hiding/resting behind filter etc)
pale
tiny red marks
droopy tail
cloudy eyes
split tail
wobbly swimming
dark body/head before death
I suspect this was a fungal infection that lead to bacterial at a later stage. Fungal infections start off with weight loss despite the fish continuing to eat. Then it affects their swimming. They can develop tiny ulcers and their fins become torn/ragged-looking. Sometimes this is caused from their abnormal swimming behaviour causing them to catch their fins on tank objects, or it can be from the bacterial infection itself.
As I mentioned in that other forum post, the darkening of the body and head just before death is where the internal organs are infected and rupturing.
Do you have any Protozin or equivalent medication that you can begin treating your other fish with?
With these things it is difficult to treat because they are internal and usually by the time you notice something is wrong with the fish, a lot of damage has been done inside them already. But you never know - sometimes it's possible to stop it in its tracks if you act quickly enough.
As they say, prevention is better than cure (and a lot cheaper too LOL). So it's important to try to find out what has caused this in the first place. Actually, if you say those photos were taken when you bought the fish, then more than likely they already had the start of something nasty at that time as they don't look in tip top condition to me.
When you buy fish from your LFS try to check them over before accepting them. If they show any outward signs of looking abnormal in any way, even if they just look a bit thin compared to others in the tank - ask the assistant to net you another one. You don't have to accept the fish just because they've netted it. If you're able to watch the tank for 5-10 mins to observe them all in the tank you will often be able to spot those that look healthy - and those that don't. Personally, it puts me off buying a fish if there are sickly fish in the tank aswell.
The other bit of advice I'd give is not to go over the top with water changes. Some of the advice I read on these forums scares me because some would have you doing a water change every day! Really not necessary and it doesn't do your filter bacteria any good as you then starve them of the ammonia that they need to survive.
I think some people think that once their tank is cycled then the more water changes they do the healthier their tank will be...but that only leads to the filter bacteria dying off, which defeats the whole purpose of cycling it in the first place LOL
A well-maintained tank with an appropriate filter, adequate stock, no overfeeding etc etc doesn't really need more than a 25% water change every fortnight.
The problem most of us have at the early stages is reaching that status quo - the point at which everything is stable and unchanging.
Remember, though, that as your stock levels change, so will your filter bacteria levels. Whenever you add any fish to your tank you are then making a change and your filter needs to adapt to this change.
Large water changes of, say, 50% are only really needed at times when there's chemical spikes or certain illnesses present (e.g. fin rot is helped by small, regular water changes).
Well, I think that's enough from me for now LOL - gosh, don't I go on
Regards, Athena
