Upside Down Gourami

[emma294]

hello. im new to this forum and relatively new to keeping tropical fish. ive had my tank for about 5 months and all is going well. i have lost a few fish but they seem 2 have had breathing difficulties and just looked weak, yet other fish that i have bught at the same time of the same variety are still doing fine so am i right to guess that they were just unhealthy fish that didnt respond well to the tank move???

at present i have a female gourami - i think its the small variety - she is blue and yellow stripped and the male is red and blue and easily twice the size of the female. however the female keeps swimming round in circles, upside down, on her side and very fast, flying round the tank, and then all of a sudden she wil lie on the bottom and stay there 4 quite a while. she is still eating though. just wondering if anyone could maybe give me some indication of what this might be, whether it is infectious???

also, my tank is a 75 litre, and i have some golden barbs that seem to be growing uncontrollably. they are reali big now, any ideas what i should consider doing with them as i fear they may soon outgrow the tank.


thank you. x

 

[Athena]

Hi Emma

Your dwarf gourami could have swimbladder disorder if she is swimming at a funny angle and upside down. Does it look like the current is pushing her around the tank at all when she tries to swim? You could try feeding her some crushed pea (just been advising someone else the same thing) as that often helps correct it.

Also, could you let us know what fish and how many of each you have in your tank and did you add any new fish recently? If so, what and how many?

Thanks - Athena

 

[emma294]

thank u so much

hard to say about whether the current is pushing her round. my filter system goes up through the lid and she seems 2 b spending a lot of time on and around the bottom, especially lying on some of the live plants in the tank.

last fish i added were 2 miniture angel fish and that was about 2 mayb 3 months ago. i hav one male gourami as they were a pair, i have 5 golden barbs, 2 angel fish, 5 leopard danios, and about 10 glowlight and neon tetras.

i wil try the pea idea though thank u x x