Need Urgent Help! Gourami Not Looking Good!

[moey23q]

Hey everyone, i bought my spotted/gold gourami today and its not looking so good in my tank. I tested pH etc. every thing is fine, other fish i have in my tank is as follows -

2x silver sharks
2x tiger barbs
1x blue gourami
1x golden algae eater
1x golden gourami (sick)

heres an image, the problem is it sits at the surface and looks very stressed out, i don't have a hospital tank so help please. I have an approx 1.25 x 1.50m tank.
I feed them pellets etc. My tank has been going for a month now, and all my other fish are fine except for the gold gourami, note that it has been in the tank for about an hour and a half now, i done the correct procedure such as turn off the light, place bag in water for 15 minutes, put a bit of the water in the bag. etc. help.

the picture below - sorry for low quality, but that is what it does, sticks at the surface. it ate a few pellets earlier, thanks.

 

[SouthernCross]

Do you have a closer/clearer pic?

Are you sure its a gold gourami? It looks like it has a black stripe, which would suggest pearl to me...

Pearls are a lot more docile and your blue (known to be aggressive, and true golds are jsut a colour morph of blue, so the same fish really) might be bullying it.

Again, it might just be your fish adjusting, if its only been an hour and a half you say.

If it starts showing more systems other than just being shy I would get more worried....

You say you've had this tank a month, you said ph is fine, are your ammonia/nitrite at zero? I.e. did you cycle your tnak properly?

 

[moey23q]

Thanks for the reply, ill try and get a closer pic, but i posted the picture to show its behaviour i.e staying at the top. I just checked it and it is more towards the bottom, but by itself, it is a gold spotted gourami or something like that, i will try getting a clearer picture, why don't the two gourami's school together, are both gourami's going to be lonely? the blue gourami seems to be hanging out with the other fish though. I am pretty sure i cycled my tank properly, because all 5 other fish have been fine for weeks.

 

[SouthernCross]

Check out the profiles here - which one does your fish look like? You saying 'spotted' as well is making me think you have a pearl. Look for the stripe as the main indicator I would think.

Gold Gourami

or

Pearl Gourami

Gourami's aren't necessarily schooling fish by nature, unless you have loads I think. Your main problem will be if you have two males - they WILL fight. Blue gouramis in particular have a reputation for being territorial and aggressive, pearls less so. So if you have a pearl, the poor thing will probably cop a beating from your blue. Although hopefully your blue will turn out to be female, which may mean you won't have much trouble, as I think females aren't very aggressive. If you get some clearer pictures of both this one and your blue one someone will be able to sex them for you. But nonetheless, gouramis do best in M/F/F trios (or multiples of this ratio) - plenty of females to keep the male interested without constantly harassing one.

*Edit*
I should add that gouramis are labyrinth fish, meaning they come to the surface to breath out of a little organ - so they actually are a mid-to-top dwelling fish most of the time, so hanging around up the top isn't necessarily a terrible thing. Only if he's gasping all the time. But if he's still settling in and calming down, its not surprising he's hanging near the top to expel less energy.

 

[moey23q]

Thank you again for your reply, i looked at the profiles and my fish is a Pearl Gourami. It has calmed down a bit now, i will give you an update soon. If what your saying is right, ill wait until tomorrow morning and see if he is still at the surface, if so i will then start to worry.
Another thing, theres this white stuff floating around in the tank, are these air bubbles? or simply just natural fish tank stuff that will soon be cleaned up by the filter, everything is squeaky clean, but the water SOMETIMES contains little white things, they are usually gone within 20 minutes, but what are they? This isn't a big issue but it is affecting the appearance of the tank and i don't think the fish like it. Thank you everyone for your replies.

 

[corey01]

dont know what the white stuff is but if your worried because your fish is at the surface bare in mind that gouramies have a labrynth organ which enables them to take in oxygen directly from the suarface...often when you first purchase gouramies they will stay at the surface for the first few hours just to settle in.