Im New To Gouramis- Whats Wrong?

[Arktica]

Hello, im new to keeping fish and yesterday i bought 2 peppered catfish and 4 blue gouramis which i to added to our large tank which only had 4 small jewel tetra and 2 established peppered catfish in.

the catfish have settlled down and are happily accepted by the other fish in the tank, but the blue gouramis are not looking well.... 2 have died (1 of them whilst i typed this) and the others are very sluggish and just sitting at the top of the tank not really moving around at all although they accepted blood worm.

they seem to have tiny red spots all over the tail and main body of the fish which i didnt notice until today.
i havent been able to find any info on these red spots online and just wanted some advice. we have no means to quarentine the 2 remaining fish, if they survive and dont knwo what to do to treat as we cant diagnose.


symptoms:

not swimming
staying on top of tank
tiny red spots over fish body and tail
fish do not 'sit' straight the head is always above the tail
they have a 'drunken' wobble to their movements (when they do move)



all other fish seems healthy and we have just done our weekly 1/4 water change on saturday before putting the new fish into the tank.

temperature 25 degrees nitrate level 0.3,
we have no means to test ammonia/PH but we will buy testing kits tomorrow.any help is greatly appreciated and i appoligise if i've missed an answer to this in the forum searches i have done.

just to add we will be goign to the fish shop to ask about whats happening tomorow

 

[WILDER]

Tiny reds spots on a fish is septicemia will get you some info.


Red spots on skin can be caused by:
Regarding the small red dot, small pinprick like haemorrhages (called petechiae) can be due to a local lesion, a generalised septicaemia or toxaemia caused by acute viral and bacterial infections.

 

[Arktica]

that doesnt sound very good but thanks you very much for the information.
when i go the the lfs in about 20 minutes i'll ask advice from them.

(

 

[WILDER]

Septicemia very hard to cure once it has advanced as it blood poisoning.
The bacteria from the ill fish can enter the tank, can you issolate the sick fish?
Whats your location?

 

[Davo86]

sounds like you have brought some ill fish, I would remove them asap and return them to the store,

 

[Arktica]

hi again thanks for all your responses, i line in north west london, the blue gouramis are all dead i took them back to the fish shop and noticed they had the same problem with 1 dead with the same redness on it and 1 dying)


i replaced them with some healthy looking golden gouramis 1 of which has already died.... 1 looks poorly and is very in active on the bottom only comming up for air and the other 2 are still swimming around althought not as active as when they arrived, their colours remain beautifull.

i found out something which i want your thoughts on.... for the last few months when we have cleaned out our filter (the white wooly fibre) and have been using tap water... i read today this kills all the bacteria.. ahh the stupidy of the error!, is this likely to be the reason why no new fish other than the peppered catfish are taking to the tank. im sick of killing all these beautifull creatures

apon the advice of a diferent fish shop i have done a 10% water change today (on top of saturdays regular 20%) cleaned out the filter in aquarium water and added something to the filter to cause a bacteria bloom. does this sound worthwhile?



just to add have checked the amonia and ph as well nitrates the only thing wrong is that the Ph is about 8.0 but im adding stuff to bring that down a little bit per day

 

[WILDER]

Don't use ph adjusters more trouble then there worth.
Add peat to the filter that a good way of fetching ph down, also bogwood.
I would preform some daily water changes on the tank, and even consider adding a bacterial med.
Good luck.
http/www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html

 

[TribeOfShroom]

Once you get you're tank sorted, if you want I have 2 stunning Golden Gouramis, free to collect. If you want to head up to wiltshire lol. I would post, but due to recent postal complications and the fact that this is England, I can't and won't trust the post service.

*EDIT* Here's a pic of the tank they're in.

tank

 

[Arktica]

Once you get you're tank sorted, if you want I have 2 stunning Golden Gouramis, free to collect. If you want to head up to wiltshire lol. I would post, but due to recent postal complications and the fact that this is England, I can't and won't trust the post service.

*EDIT* Here's a pic of the tank they're in.

tank

beautifull tank and happy fish but its a fair bit to travel thanks all the same though was a very nice offer