sick gourami?

[JacopoFishy]

I've only had my silver gourami a couple of weeks now, but a few days ago I noticed a greenish tinge near his dorsal fin, towards his face. Its slight, and barely noticeable. The little guy isn't displaying any other signs of a general illness (fins are spread, active, normal behavior, eating fine, no disorientation or other discoloration, no bulging eyes, his scales aren't fanned out, etc.) I figured I should just put a post in here and pay extra close attention to the water parameters and how he seems. any thoughts? I've grown attached already...

 

[sylvia]

What are your water parameters? What other fish is he with? What do you mean by 'silver gourami'? Are you sure it's not just his color developing?

 

[JacopoFishy]

...I'm going to check my water parameters first thing when I get home tonight, and then I'll post them. typically the pH has been a tad high, between 7.3 and 7.6ish. Eightfold is a moonlight gourami, sorry about the non-specific "silver". Eightfold is currently residing in a rather squished tank with three mollies, a snail, two cories, another catfish, a betta, and two neon tetras. the info is in my signature, as well. sure it's not his color developing. it doesn't seem to be progressing though.

 

[sylvia]

Hmm... I can't say what it may be then. Unless there are problems with water quality (you are majorly over-stocked), I realy can't offer any explanations - moonlights shouldn't be turning green I was sort of hoping it was a pearl (which do get olive coloration) or something but nope...

10 gallon community tank
-gold molly (Jacopo, female) - 3 inches
-betta (Kiko, male) - incompatible with gourami
-2 corydoras catfish (Archimedes and Siddhartha) - 3 inches, shoaling fish
-gold lyretail molly (Satine, female) - 3 inches
-2 neon tetras - shoaling fish
-dalmation molly fry (about 7 weeks old) - 3 inches
-moonlight gourami (Eightfold) - 6 inches (needs a minnimum of 20 gallons)
-Oto catfish (The Narcoleptic Argentinian) - should be kept in groups
-snail (Genghis Khan)

This tank is going to need several major changes I'm afraid...
You could start by moving the betta out and returning the gourami. Idealy, you should be left with just the mollies in the end. Or you can keep the cories and neons and add some more of each. You can also keep the snail

 

[JacopoFishy]

I'm kicking myself like you have no idea for getting those neon tetras. cute, but...enh. the betta is wicked old, he was my good friend Casey's since she was little and when she went off to college I took him in. he's an old fella, somewhat dull and bent, but happy. He's in the tank because in a bowl he's positively miserable. but anyway, Kiko gets dibs on the tank and heated water.

oh, I spaced out when I read your post. you put the inches in...

thing is, none of my fish are that big. my lyretail might be 2 and a half at most. the gold molly's barely 1.5. umm, what else? my gourami's probably 4, maybe 4.5. my beloved cories (will forever have a place in my heart, talk about adorable!) are most likely one inch each...although maybe 1.5. my oto is puny, too. not sure if they all are... also, my sweet little Hyperion is... *ponders* probably a half or 2/3 of an inch? she's growing every day though, I will admit. and Kiko and Eightfold get along fabulously. When I introduced Eightfold, Kiko was quite fascinated with his "feelers". hehehe...

but yea, if my fish were all their "normal" sizes (I know that the sizes you provided are indeed their typical sizes) I would be in majorly humongous trouble. or, am I being silly and none of them are full-grown?

thanx. hopefully this christmas I'm lookin' at a new tank so I can spread my sweeties out a bunch...

 

[sylvia]

I would think the fish will all reach their full size as soon as you move them to a large enough tank to accomodate all of them. Most likely they are not yet full grown or the lack of space is hindering their growth or they were kept in inadequate tanks as fry (which often leads to slight stunting or smaller size than normal). Water temperature and feeding also play an important role in growth. Seeing as ALL your fish are smaller than normal, I would think the tank size is causing the lack of growth. Either that or they are kept in low temperatures and are not fed any live/rich foods.
I think getting a larger tank is a great idea BTW Then you can get more tetras and cories and all your fish can grow big and strong