Trouble With Little Gourami :(

[funkyhoney]

i have a little 5cm flame gourami in my 3ft community tank, as of late every now and then he swims right down the bottom of the tank, flips upside down and seems to rub his back on the substrate. i'm not sure whats going on as he still swims and feeds normally and not sure what i should do about it, any ideas?

 

[thegnu]

white-spot?
i should think you should be more concerned in re homing your silver sharks and silver dollars from your 2 foot tank

 

[catxx]

rubbing on things is a sign of a parasite. have a close look and see if you can see anything suspicious on his scales, like white spots. this is treatable with the correct meds available from any fish store.

 

[TerraDreamer]

i should think you should be more concerned in re homing your silver sharks and silver dollars from your 2 foot tank

 

[fishwatcher]

I think you should do a water change asap. It may be the levels are not quite right. I had a tank once that all the levels checked out fine (ammo 0, nitrite 0, nirtrate 5) but a fish was flicking. I did a water change anyway and it immediately stopped. I'd do that first, even if there are no problems on the water test.

 

[gpgscott]

catxx and fishwatcher are right on. This behavior is called a number of things flashing is the common term in the US. If this is the only fish doing this it may be a parasite on this fish only. A partial water change can never hurt, it would be best to quarantine this fish if possible until you rule out the parasite. Some parasites can be eradicated more rapidly by elevating the water temperature. Scott

 

[funkyhoney]

thanks all, i'll do a partial water change and move him out into a small spare tank, i don't see anything on his body which raised my suspicion in the first place.. but anyway, i'll ad some pimafix until i can find something more suitable for removing whatever it may be.

and the silvers are quite happy where they are, if and when they get to an unmanageable size i'll move them.