Newbie With Very Sick Looking Dwarf Gourami

[nickbrad]

Hi there,

As you can see from the title I'm a complete newbie. This is my first post so I'm sorry if I get anything wrong - I've rushed through a few site rules because I'm slightly panicked:

I've just come back from holiday and my dwarf gourami has gone really black on one side and a bit grey on the other. I've read this can be due to stress or just age. Most alarmngly though one of his eyes seems to be missing.

My tank is pretty small - it's about 7 gallons/ 30 litres

Apart from the DG it has a betta and 2 red eye tetra

I've done a nitrate test and it seems to be the lightest colour on the chart (0.3 mg/l or less)

The last time I did a water change of about 25% was just over 3 weeks ago before I went away.

Can anyone help please?

 

[electropunk06]

Hi have you got any more test results (ammonia or nitrite)?
does your gouramis eye look infected/inflamed?
Also you other fish could have nipped or attacked him, bettas and DG's shouldn't be kept together really, and tetras need to be in a group of 6+.
what i would do is some large water changes 60% for the next few days and see what happens.

 

[mark4785]

what i would do is some large water changes 60% for the next few days and see what happens.

If you have not done a W/C for 3 weeks, you should not be doing a massive water change because the 3-week-old water will be so dramatically different in it's composition from when it came out of the tap 3 weeks ago to the point that replacing it on a large scale would cause physiological stress to the fish.

It would be better to do small 15-20% W/C's twice a day, rather than a large one in one go.

You ought to get an ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and PH test kit as purely having a nitrate test doesn't give you an accurate all-round view of your water quality.

I'm concerned that your tank is full of ammonia and nitrite because when people first set-up their tank the ammonia and nitrite levels in a tank will rise and it will take some time for them to be converted into nitrate. Once the conversion of ammonia to nitrite to nitrate gets more efficient, you'd expect there to be 5-20ppm of nitrate in the aquarium at all times. The fact that you have 0.3mg/l of nitrate is possibly indicative that your ammonia/nitrite levels are stuck at high concentrations and are not being naturally converted to nitrate.

If your fish are not eating, are fatigueed, are flicking/rubbing or have other questionable behaviour I would presume there is a water quality issue and starting doing twice daily W/C's as well as getting an API master test kit which comprises ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and PH test kits.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I would say that a 7 gallon tank is much too small for a DG. Also, there is a disease that affects DGs exclusively and as far as I've been able to determine, there is no cure. My last remaining DG (out of 5 originally) has now got an injured-looking mouth. All the others had strange symptoms and died within a few days.

If the only sign, however, is the darkened appearance he may just be in the mood for love. This happened with mine and that's what I determined from all the research I did.

Best of luck.

 

[nickbrad]

Thank you so much for all your help. Amazed at the quick response. I will definitely go out today and buy a more comprehensive water test kit and post back the results this evening.

I've also been watching the behaviour between the betta and the dwarf gourami and the betta seems to have become very aggressive towards it. It keeps on flaring it's gills and attacking the DG. Is the a way of separating them for the time being, rather than buying a whole new tank and heater?

Are the tetras ok, do you think?

Thanks again.

 

[Skins]

Thank you so much for all your help. Amazed at the quick response. I will definitely go out today and buy a more comprehensive water test kit and post back the results this evening.

I've also been watching the behaviour between the betta and the dwarf gourami and the betta seems to have become very aggressive towards it. It keeps on flaring it's gills and attacking the DG. Is the a way of separating them for the time being, rather than buying a whole new tank and heater?

Are the tetras ok, do you think?

Thanks again.

Hello and welcome to the forum.
There was another thread on here only the other day with a betta being aggressive to a gourami which involved the gourami loosing scales. If you do end up buying a seperate tank for the betta then you will only require a 5g tank which go pretty cheap on Ebay.

Keith.

 

[electropunk06]

Hi, a tank divider would work, maybe as a permanent solution. i would say the tetras should be in a bigger group of 6+.
My betta has got really aggressive towards my DG, if the tank is heavily planted it help because they cannot see each other all the time.
If you get a test kit get a liquid one (api masters) strips are a little less accurate.
Lloyd

 

[nickbrad]

OK, tank divider in place and water tests done. The only thing that looks high is the PH - 7.4 This is slightly high isn't it?

If I lower the PH does anybody know if the colour of the fish will return?

Thanks.