My Dwarf Gourami is acting strange

[V3rmilion]

So, I have Dwarf Gourami that I've owned for a few months now, and as the title says, is acting strange. He sometimes lays on the bottom of the tank, but when I walk over to check on him, he'll get up like nothing is wrong. Also, he won't eat, and he has a white splotch on top of his head above his eyes. I tried doing some research, but I couldn't really find anything. I assume it's bloating, but I wanted to see for sure.

As I have been on this site before, usually people with fish problems give out their water parameters. Unfortunately, I do not know my nitrite and nitrate measurements, so sorry about that. But, my ammonia is at 0 ppm, and my pH is on the acidic side, at 6.2.

The tank I have is a 6 gal. with a gold mystery snail, four fake plants, a large Petoskey stone, and a Marimo moss ball. It uses a bio-wheel to help the filtration. It is currently 72°F (22.2°C). I feed my dwarf gourami Omega One® Super Color Flakes and Omega One® Freeze-Dried Bloodworms, and I fast him every Sunday. I also add a little bit of pulverized cuttlebone to help the mystery snail's shell every Sunday as well. The substrate is black gravel pebbles, and I do a 25% water change every month.

I previously had a large brown goldfish and a plecostomus in the tank with the gourami, but I got rid of them because they were getting too big for the tank, and also because the goldfish was nipping at the gourami's ventricles (which are fine now!) After I got rid of the two fish, I added the snail and moss ball.

Since I'm new on making threads, I believe the way of adding photos is to attach a photo via the 'Upload a file' button. If this is wrong, I apologize.

I you know what's wrong with him, please feel free to post an answer in the comments. I really appreciate it!

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Can you post another picture that is in focus?

The fish appears to have 3 or 4 white dots on its head, cloudy eyes, is fat and stuck to the filter intake. Is that correct?

Cloudy eyes would indicate something in the water. The pits in the head could be hexamita or something else.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Post another pic and monitor the fish. I don't have high hopes for it tho.

 

[V3rmilion]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Can you post another picture that is in focus?

The fish appears to have 3 or 4 white dots on its head, cloudy eyes, is fat and stuck to the filter intake. Is that correct?

Cloudy eyes would indicate something in the water. The pits in the head could be hexamita or something else.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Post another pic and monitor the fish. I don't have high hopes for it tho.

All of those facts are correct, and I will try to help it with a water change. There is a problem, I'm leaving my house for three days, so I will have to wait a bit. I can't really move it out of the tank, as I don't have a quarantine tank. So I will just leave it in the tank and hope it survives. I feel bad about doing that, but it's my only option.

When I poke it with a net, it will get up and swim around, but it will sink back down to the filter and lay down shortly after.

here is the photo, I have a crappy camera so it's the best I could do.

 

[Colin_T]

If the fish can't swim properly and sinks back to the bottom after swimming, then it could have a swim bladder problem or an internal infection. Neither of which can be treated easily or successfully. Personally, I would euthanize the fish before you go away. That way it won't die in the tank and cause ammonia problems that could wipe out everything.

Don't replace the gourami with another gourami later on because it could have the Iridovirus that will be in the tank and kill any new gouramis you put in there.

 

[V3rmilion]

If the fish can't swim properly and sinks back to the bottom after swimming, then it could have a swim bladder problem or an internal infection. Neither of which can be treated easily or successfully. Personally, I would euthanize the fish before you go away. That way it won't die in the tank and cause ammonia problems that could wipe out everything.

Don't replace the gourami with another gourami later on because it could have the Iridovirus that will be in the tank and kill any new gouramis you put in there.

Sorry I haven't replied in a while, but I have some news.

I didn't euthanize the gourami because I never really had time to, and I didn't have anything to humanely euthanize it. So I left it in the tank.

We were planning on staying downstate for only three days, but something happened, and we had to stay for four more days. I did have some hope he was alive, because my mother went back upstate on Sunday (of the week we went down), stayed there on Monday, and came back down on Tuesday. I asked if he was still alive and she said he was.

We came back up on Thursday, and I went up to my tank to check on him. Unfortunately, he was dead in the tank. I took him out, and checked my ammonia. It was near 0 ppm, which was good. The snail was still alive, which was also good.

So overall, it was sad that I lost him, and I feel bad for not euthanizing him, but I did get a new beautiful blue crowntail betta, who I named Igor