My Gouramai's Dying For Some Reason!

[MaXxwell]

Hi,

i noticed last night that 1 of my powder blue dwarf gourami's acting oddly.. just very motionless resting in my floating plants, today though when i came home from work hes lying down side up at the bottom of the tank but hes still alive. i have no idea why this has happend. i have another (larger) male gourami & a female amongst other fish & they're all perfectly okay. The only thing i have done different over the weekend is done a larger water change but i honestly dont think its anything to do with that since all other fish are fine..

any input or advise would be great, because if i have done something wrong i'd like 2 avoid it in future.

Thank you in advance.. marcus

 

[Athena]

Hi Marcus

Can I just ask how often you do your water changes and roughly what percentage each time? Was there a longer gap between this water change and the one before it? (e.g. more than 2 -3 weeks?)

Reason for asking is that if tank water hasn't been changed in several weeks/months and then you do a massive water change it can have a detrimental impact on the aquarium. In old tank water the nitrates can rise quite high, dropping the PH value. As this happens slowly over a period of time, most fish will live through the change, albeit not very happily and some smaller/frailer fish may die.

Doing a large water change on old tank water at this point suddenly changes the PH value (increases it) and that can be enough to shock some fish into death or sickness due to the stress.

Without knowing more about your tank maintenance regime, it's hard to pinpoint a cause for your current sick fish.

Also, have you tested your water to check all the levels - ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph?

Regards, Athena