Sick Gourami - Please Help Him :(

[fwells2]

Tank size: 10 gal
pH: 7.2
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 80
tank temp: 82
tank contents: 6 tetras, 1 plec and a very poorly male blue dwarf gourami
chemicals added: revitaliser tonic

over the past few days i noticed my gourami was becoming more and more withdrawn. he sat under the bridge in the tank which seemed odd as i believe gourami are meant to be surface fish. I have never seem the other fish chase or bully him, they pretty much leave him alone. he also seems to be having trouble keeping his balance so i put him into a breeding tank to make sure the other fish left him alone. he has no physical signs of disease. his colourings are still bright and he has no marks on his fins or gills. Yesterday he was staying by the top of the surface and seemed to be gasping for air, so i placed an extra air pump near him to try and help circulate oxygen. But today, he is resting on the bottom of the tank and his breathing seems a lot slower. he seems incapable of keeping his own balance, so he is always leaning on the bottom or the sides of the tank. however, he is not thrashing about or paniced at all, its like he is in a bit of a daze.

the temperature of the tank might be a little high for him and i know my nitrate level is far too high, is there a simple way to get this down without increasing the pH, ammonia and nitrites? the other fish seem unaffected by the rise in nitrates and are swimming about perfectly fine. The other fish are still eating fine, but the gourami seems to have lost his appitite. when i put food in his tank, he ate some of it if it floated past his mouth but wasnt particularly bothered by it. is it possible that i've poisoned my poor little gourami?

 

[black angel]

You need to get your nitrates down. Temperature is ok as long as theres lots of oxygen but really you have too many fish in the tank.
How big is the plec and what type?
Do 40% water changes each day for a few days and also test your tap water to see where the nitrate level is for that.

 

[fwells2]

Thanks for your quick reply. I was planning on moving the fish over the a 2' x 1' tank over the weekend but since the gourami fell ill, i thought it was best not to stress him out. The plec is only about 1 inch and i think hes just the normal speckled plec (the black one with brown specks).

The tap water has under 0-5mg/l of nitrates. Whats the best way to get the nitrate level down in the tank?

 

[black angel]

You need to do lots of water changes over the next few days.

Start off with 70% today, 40% tomorrow and 30% each day for a week and see how that goes.
Clean out your filter on the third day and rinse well in the used tank water. Also use a gravel vac on all water changes if you dont already.

If you are going to move them anyway then use half the tank water and filters and then just do a 50% water change tomorrow and see how it goes. The plec needs around 10 gallons from a small age anyway as its a common and will grow to around a foot in a year.

 

[fwells2]

thanks very much for your help