Sick Fish Or Acting Strang

[Fizban]

he still eats and no other signs of sickness he swims on his side a lot and tends to go round in circles the rest of the fish are fine the water is tip top good he started acting like this i think after a water change i think in time he will die cuz a long time (half a year back just about) i had anuther acting the same way i had no idear how to treat it and so i hoped it would get better with time it lived anuther munth i thort it must have hurt its self by jumping and hiting the glass but well maby that was not right cuz it looks like its the same thing

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Can you give us more info on your situation like tank size/gallons and stocking as well as feeding and tank cleaning regime? Sounds like it could be a swimbladder disorder, have you tested your water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates?

 

[Fizban]

size about 4 and half foot long and about one and a half wide and one and half high gallons i guess around 43 gallons and i have 10 gouramis a sword tail and 2 mollys i will have a new tank in april as well and i feed them frozen blood worms some flake food called frenzy flakes its says its good for color and health i give them a mix of sinking foods as for cleaning i give it a good clean every second week but i take water out 2 times a week as well to add fresh water i was thinking it could be swimbladder disorder as well cuz i had a fish a long time a go i cant rember the name but its typ of breed did not have good swimbladders and so it was resting a lot of the time and i asked on here about it that how i no its breed did not have good swimbladder i got told about stuff to do with the swimbladder then and from what i no it could be that if it is that how should i treat it ? i tested the water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? every things good there i keep an eye on the water as i said befor i am makeing shore it stays fresh so i test it after i do the good clean on the second week i use a bio filter thats a little better then is needed for the tank and of corse air stones oh and i have no problems with the gouramis fighting with each other im suprised at that cuz out of the 10 i have only 3 are female (i got most of them befor i new how to tell males from females when they were small now they are big and dont have a problem with each other

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

What sort of diet do you give the fish and how much on average? It sounds like it could be bacterial in origin, i would use the "Anti Swimbladder" treatment by Interpet.

 

[Fizban]

frozen blood worms some flake food called frenzy flakes its says its good for color and health i give them a mix of sinking foods.......thats realy what they eat i would be feeding them live foods but i live in a realy small town and the best the pet shop can do is frozen blood worms and flake typ foods hmmmmmm as fpr how much i feed them probly 3 times a day some of each but i make shore i never give them more then they will eat

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Try getting some veg into their diet like cooked de-shelled and chopped up pea's or cooked and chopped up spinache- they may not accept these foods very readily at first, but feeding a lot of dried or high protein foods can bring on constipation in some fish whcih can then lead to things like swimbladder disorders. Feeding veg like pea's and spinache every now and then is a good way to prevent these sorts of problems, and the more varied diet will also improve their imune systems as well in the long run .

 

[paul-discus]

Totally agree with above and would just add that a 24 hour fasting period each week is also a good idea.

 

[Fizban]

hmm sound intresting i will give it a try i have tryed spinache and lettus befor i have found the males tend to start bring bits into a corner and blow bubbles and start attaking the other fish and that can be very bad cuz most of them are males (i dont have any trubble most of the time) thanks for the info

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

What sort of gourami's do you have exactly as some types can become increasingly agressive towards each other as they mature

 

[sylvia]

Fizban has mainly three-spots and a few moonlights as far as I know so the aggression is typical.

Can you isolate the sick fish? With the other fish you have in your tank, it's unlikely to survive as it won't be able to compete for food as efficiently and may also be attacked. All you need is a large plastic container like those storage boxes or large plastic bins you can get (eg from a DIY store). Then just add lots of gravel from your established tank and old tank water and change that water every couple of days with dechlorinated tap water. This'll let you feed the fish whatever it needs and treat it (in case the problem is bacterial) without worrying about the other fish. You may also need a heater to keep the temperature up (fluctuations must be avoided) but a filter won't be necessary.

 

[Fizban]

as sylvia say i have mainly three-spots and 2 moonlights oh and they are about as agressive towards each other now as they will get cuz all of them are arownd the same size and very near full growen (oh the moon lights are at there full size so they are bigger) i have found the only time they get agressive towards each other is when i put 2 in a tank to breed and well that happens with gouramis when breeding ......i have herd that keeping a lot of gouramis in one tank can make them like this cuz they cant make a territory and any aggression is spread out in other words they put up with each other i spose like big brothers and big sisters have to put up with little brothers or sisters when they Annoying us lol and sylvia i do have a small tank free i use it for breeding snails and gouramis so i guess thats good right theres a heater to keep the temperature and its all ready established cuz i have snails grewing there at the moment oh and i have not seen u for a bit on here was xmas taken all your time ? sighs i dont have much hope for the fish cuz i think this is the same thing that killed the other gourami i told u about the only gourami that was very easy to breed that i had how i thort it hit it head on the glass cuz it was acting drunk it was acting in the same sort of way this is a nice colored one as well sighs oh i tryed to get lavender gouramis from a big pet shop and they looked at me like i was stupied cuz the lady who is the lady who orders the fish said they have never herd of them befor and asked if they have anuther name they dont have anuther name right ???they would have lavender gouramis in austraila right ???(oh and my mum gave me 3 clown loachers for xmas ) welll thats every thing i have to say in this message

 

[sylvia]

Yep, that tank would work nicely though you can't treat the gourami if the snails are in there - the snails will die.

I went on holiday for 10 days over Christmas and had no internet access so that's why I wasn't around

It's too bad your LFS can't get hold of the lavenders. As far as I am aware, they don't have another name. Having said that, I think 'lavender gourami' is often used in Australia to describe the pearl gourami You might want to ask them what sorts of different three'spot gouramies they get in and let them describe the colors to you - maybe they just don't know te actual name.

 

[Fizban]

im going to take a guess and say they probly think all the difrent colors of the 3 spot are difrent typs of gourami cuz it sounded like they were all about the names that they order from cuz the order sheet would have the three spots not being called three spot but more under the names like gold gourami blue gourami and stuff like that and theres wall to wall fish in that place so haveing a lot of info on ever typ of fish would not be easy mind u some peepl who work there have fish and they have info about them ..............sighs i am obly going to be able to breed one i think and i gather that may be hard evan if the gouramis i have ever start to breed ...............................oh and the snails will be going to the pet shop in the next few days they are near the size the guy wanted and i will be happy not to have so many snail in the tanks ......you went on holiday for 10 days?what happened to you fish?

 

[sylvia]

I asked a friend to come in every 2-3 days to feed them and I left the food - measured out in tiny 'parcels' for each tank so that she wouldn't overfeed. I suffered no casualties so I guess it worked well

 

[Fizban]

still i bet u missed them ..........heres a funny story happened today i got up gave the gouramis some food then as i was watching them eat i could not bleave what i was seeing and started to freak out i saw one of my gold gouramis swim by and it looked like both sides of its face were falling off i guess u would understand why i was freaking out at that stage i watched him for a bit all sorts of thorts going throo my head then when i got a realy good look i thort hey wait looked at it for a bit then realized what i was looking it was a curl part of a gold snail shell the fish must have gone to go throo it and got cort funny thing is the gourami let me take it out of the tank and stayed still as i removed the shell ......the shell was the same color as the fish so it scaired me to death there cuz if realy was loseing both sides of its face i would of had to kill it cuz other wise it would have been crule to him to let him live like that and i hate killing fish