Is My Gourami Ok?

[Pie[]]

I'm pretty new to the hobby, I've kept roughly 8 fish for a year now and I'm slowly finding my way.
I recently added a Neon Dwarf Gourami to the tank about 1.5 weeks ago so I'm still figuring out his behavior. He's been marvelous ever since we got him but I woke up this morning to find him sandwiched between a couple of leaves of a fake plant with his head pointing to the top of the tank at a fairly extreme angle of about 85*, presumably this was intentional on his part. What's bothering me about it is that he's not even flinched a a couple of hours. Is he just taking a nap? Or is he toast?

I'll try to get a picture.
Thanks,

 

[Essjay]

See if he moves if you carefully put your hand near him. It doesn't sound good if he's not moved for a couple of hours. I've had fish that wedge themselves into a plant when they are sick, I assume it saves them having to swim when they're not well.

 

[pammy172]

can you see any movement from his gills or mouth?

They are notoriously difficult to keep being very vulnerable to stress and illness.

 

[Pie[]]

There's the shot.
Though it may not look it, his colors look bright and all and he was swimming around as usual when I went to bed.

I'll see if I can coax him to move. Thanks for the reply.

 

[pammy172]

Can you tell us more about your tank? Size, other occupants, water parameters etc.

 

[Pie[]]

Well turns out he's in fishy heaven. I'm not sure what the problem was but it's possible this just wasn't a suitable environment for him. I run a relatively cool tank between 68-72F depending on how long the light has been on. Apparently my heater died too. The water is a little on the alkaline side and the water hardness is quite high, in the upper ranges of my test strips, thus, the water ph is also high at a little over 8. I intended to do a partial water change using distilled water to help that out some today. I guess I was too late.

Thank for the help.

One last thing, is there an edit post button? I can't seem to find it.

 

[pammy172]

aaaw sorry about your gourami. They are cute little things. I lost one only a few weeks ago too: (

As for edit button - yes, bottom right of your post box near where the reply and next to the quote buttons

 

[Pie[]]

pammy172, I didn't see your post until just a second ago. The tank is a 20 gallon hexagonal style with a large whisper filter, a whisper air pump and air stone (a recent addition, its cool to see the fish play in the bubbles), one Amazon Sword plant, 2 fake plants, some rocks and a cave thingey, and gravel substrate. As for fish, the tank has been thriving with 2 x-ray tetras, 2 siamese sharks (algea eaters), 2 black pearl rasboras and 2 neon/green swordtails (male). This is a total of roughly 16" of fish.
My understanding is that a good rule of thumb, though it will obviously vary tank to tank, is 1" to a gallon. It's likely the tank is a little crowded, but everyone gets along and is healthy.
Also, I have an ammonia tester that suctions to the inside of the tank that will supposedly let me know if my ammonia levels rise above 0. I figured that too many fish would be seen as an increase in ammonia. Is this correct? My ammonia levels are zero.

I also understand that my tank dimensions are not ideal to begin with, being a hex style and all, but I'm trying to do the best with what I have.

ALL and any input/criticism is welcome.

 

[Pie[]]

aaaw sorry about your gourami. They are cute little things. I lost one only a few weeks ago too: (

As for edit button - yes, bottom right of your post box near where the reply and next to the quote buttons

Yeah it's a shame he had to go. He was quickly becoming my favorite.

Oddly enough, I still can't locate that edit button. I only see quote and reply buttons. Perhaps it's because I just joined up and I'm "validating".

 

[pammy172]

No criticism you're clearly trying to do the best you can and following the rule of thuimb which os great, but one piece of advice would be to get a full test kit so test for nitrite and nitrate too also ph.

Nitrite is lethal to fish but should be zero if your filter is working OK - ie has the bacteria to wprk the ammonia through to nitrite then the nitrite to nitrate. Nitrates are removed by water changes.

It's likely your dwarf gourami just wasnt up to the stress and as I understand it they are often bred in places using extensive med's which mean when they then enter the market they are then vicitm to illness etc. Not a lot you could have done probably just one of those sad things.

Welcome to the forum yes poss need to be validated before you can edit hey ho

 

[Pie[]]

No criticism you're clearly trying to do the best you can and following the rule of thuimb which os great, but one piece of advice would be to get a full test kit so test for nitrite and nitrate too also ph.

Nitrite is lethal to fish but should be zero if your filter is working OK - ie has the bacteria to wprk the ammonia through to nitrite then the nitrite to nitrate. Nitrates are removed by water changes.

It's likely your dwarf gourami just wasnt up to the stress and as I understand it they are often bred in places using extensive med's which mean when they then enter the market they are then vicitm to illness etc. Not a lot you could have done probably just one of those sad things.

Welcome to the forum yes poss need to be validated before you can edit hey ho

Thanks! FishForums.net looks like a great resource and community.

If I could edit!.. I'd add in that my Nitrates are at ~10ppm (mg/L), Nitrites are at 0.25 ppm (mg/L) and to be more specific about ph I'd wager by the strips that it is 8.5 due to such hard water.
I'll be attempting to fix the hard water issue today and I will replace my heater. I have a feeling my fish will be more comfortable at 74-76F rather than 68F-72F (68 as we speak).