sick gourami

[ronny]

hi guys,let me first say this is a great forum,and i know you lot will sort this for me.should have asked earlier really.i've been keeping my eye on this place for some time and i've learnt loads but only registered now since everything was fine ,til now.
ok i've got a pretty sick golden gourami.pretty sure he's got internal parasites since i've been checking up as much info on his symptoms as possible.firstly he didn't eat for a few days and i got worried and inspected him closely,it looked like his belly was a bit bloated also.i hadnt noticed him poo for a few days so i thought he might be constipated.but just cause i didnt notice doesnt mean he wasnt,but i do enjoy watching my fish for ages and showing off my aquarium to anyone i can!then he ate! woo hoo! then he pooed white thread -boo hoo! knew there was a problem that was over a week ago,not had a bite to eat since then.he also just hovers in one place and goes for a gulp of air every 2 mins or so.
now after he ate that time i thought well relax and see if he carries on eating or stops.he didnt eat for a 3 or 4 days before i went to the shop for medicine for internal parasites.now i usually go to this place that has about 300 tanks and is a great setup-here is their link check it out because you'd assume they were more than professional http/www.fishkeeper.co.uk/
but decided id try one a lot closer instead where the store owner said they didn't stock that medicine.so off i went to the usual place.looked through theyre medicines but couldnt find the brand i was after.i forget now wat it was called hex something but not seen it in any shop near me.so i described the symptoms,they said internal parasites and told me to dose the tank with eSHa 2000.i questoined this as on the box it says plenty about external problems (like ulcers,wounds, fin rot,fungus),but nothing about internals.
they basically gave me the were the professionals buy it.so i did.ive done the course to the letter,yesterday last day not a sliver of improvement.
i might be wrong on the internal thing as well help me!! i see losing a fish as a personal thing as i see them all with they're unique charector and im responsable for their life and they wouldnt die if i did things right.poor buggers.
ok the tanks about 20 gallons,of wich about 17 after rocks'gravel etc..
i let it mature 2 weeks then added 4 guppies,all of which are going strong and loving life as i write this!then i slowly started adding fish at 1 or 2 a week ,then maybe none for a week or 3,doing tests on the water before and after each waterchange(just wanted to see how it all worked).i never used salt since i have for beautiful bronze cory's at the bottom and i couple of adf's who i thought it would irratate,but when i lost a siamese fighter to fin rot(he was a new boy,i'm sure he brought it with him)i add 1 tablespoon to the whole tank,a small amount,hasn't bothered them in the slightest,i know this because i know them individually they're so cute.the tank is well planted i have two filters,under gravel,and a fluval,i turn off the undergravel at night as its a noisy bugger,i know i dont need both but hey why not?and if you think i shouldn't have 2 please say!temp i keep at about 80,but put to 85 for the treatment as i rtead on the net that its better when treating sick fish?water quality is as good as ever.i change 25% weekly.with aquasafe.
he's about 3 inches, i have him 2 months,he's not grown up yet.
in tank 6 guppies(from whom i have six babbies in another tank) 4 bronze corys,who like to lay eggs everywhe occasionally 2 pearl gouramies(about 3 weeks ago),2 blue gouramies (7 weeks agoish) couple african dwarf frogs,1 red tailed black shark,very relaxed chilled out fish,i picked him from a bunch and of course 1 gold gourami.he had a second purcased at the same time but it died the next day,i dont know why,i was gutted.all but the first guppies were purcased in this place http/www.fishkeeper.co.uk/
i don't like going there anymore since
1) the poor fin rotting siamese fighter
2) the way they have 1 fighter in each of theyre guppy tanks whos fins have
been completly nipped offand the tanks are touching so the fighters can
see each other and go mental.
3)when i purchased 2 female guppies about a month ago,i let the guy pick
'em as i checked out some of the stranger looking fish.so of course he sells
me the worst in the tank.on one side of 1 of their faces was fungus with
it's eye completly white and it couldn't swim was very ill ,i isolated it and
try to save it but it was too far gone and died within the hour.the other
was a sick MALE!!!! who died the next day.
4)they're rude,arrogant and over priced.
i could keep going but i've bored you enough already i know.
and oh yes,one of the blue gouramies is also pooing white now
but still eating.
i'll be watching this board all day so i will answer anything you need, please advise me as no one i know keeps fish.
please help me to help my fish,i know you will,thanks for reading this.

 

[Tanked]

firts off it seem that you are abit overstocked on a 20 gallon tank, the extra filtration helps, but I'm not a big fan of the UGF. I could not keep my watr parameters stable until after removing it. I would recomend ditch the ugf and get a second power filter but others here swear by their UGF (so that is up for debate) PM Semper Fi about the UGF thing, she will back me up. how long has your tank been setup in all? and if you are certain that you have internal parasites get a med that specificaly targets them. I wish I could recomend one but it seems that we have different brands across the pond. if it affectiong more than one fics I would quarantine all that you can (if possible) and treat them. if not treat the whole tank. what are your water parameters? ammonia, ph, nitrite and nitrate? raising the temp is good. oh yeah and the people at the lfs will often tell you what you want to hear jsut to get the $$$. I have been thrown out of a few in my area for giving contradicting info to another customer so that they would not have fish suffer. If you know you need something for internal parasites then get it. maybe if you PM William, CFC, Gadazobe, DG, Jamnog or one of the other UK experts they could probably recomend a brand of meds to get in your area.


hth


richard

 

[Mogo]

Hey Ronny,

I feel for you my friend. I brought home fish once that were carrying roundworms. You see, the thing is, with internal parasites, the only definative way to diagnose what is affecting your fish is to do fecal smears under a microscope. You could have worms, protists or bacteria. I'm taking my best guess here, and judging by the fact that you did not mention any external symptoms on the gourami's, and if the pooh is white and stringy and takes a long time to break off, you probably have some sort of intestinal parasite (most probably a worm). The best way to treat intestinal parasites is to medicate the fish orally, through the food. Aquatronic's has a medicine called Discomed, which I have used, and works really well. It contains a couple of excellent parasite fighting meds, as well as an antibiotic, so it leaves a little room for error in misdiagnosis. And it's easy to use, you basically just soak food like brine shrimp in it for an hour, or spray it on flake food and let it dry.

Your first step would be to set up a hospital tank and move the sick fish into it. Keep a close eye on your other fish, if you do have worms, they are easily passed on, as their eggs are deposited out of the fish via pooh, and if some of that pooh is ingested while your fish are foraging for food, the new life cycle starts. I treated 3 of my tanks, but I was sure about their sensitivity to the meds, as the eggs can be passed on through hoses and nets.

The med says to treat for 7 days (2 feedings a day), however, the eggs are not affected by the meds, so this is where it helps to know exactly what you have, that way you can work against the life cycle of the parasite. I would suggest that you do the following. For the first three days, I would do both feedings, as this is where you'll have the largest adult population. Day four only do one feeding (gives the eggs a chance to hatch). Day five and six, do two feedings (2 feedings on each day). Day 7 one feeding. Day 8 two feedings. Day nine and ten one feeding each day. This spans out the treatment over 10 days while only adding 2 extra feedings (16 instead of 14).

Make sure to keep your sick fish in the hospital for a week or so after the treatment is done. The reason for this is that it gives enough time for symptoms to start showing in your other fish. You don't want to put your now recovering fish in where they can get reinfected. If your other fish don't exhibit any signs (however, sometimes it can take quite a while, if the fish is really healthy), you should be safe.

Hope this helped, feel free to ask any questions. BTW, Discomed cannot not be used on inverts...

Mogo

 

[ronny]

hey guys thanks for the replies.
firstly,im a noob by all accounts,the tanks been up 4 months.
but my gourmi wont eat at all.not a sniff.wont even look at it,pretends its not there.there are definately no external symptoms at all,and yeah i'm pretty sure its internal.anyway thanks