I'm fairly new to the hobby but I read and research a lot. I have 20gal, cycled. No ammonia, no nitrite, less than 5 mg/L nitrate. I change 20% water every week or even more often, I like it crystal clear. My water is pretty soft, around 6. KH is very low (I added sea shells to filter a week ago to fix this). My GH is a bit low, about 30 mg/L. I only have one 2-inch feeder goldfish in there that I used for cycling.
I bought 2 dwarf gouramis. One flame-kissed female (rounded top fin), and one blue male (pointy top fin). So I very slowly acclimated both of them to the water as I realize my water is probably softer than the store's. I noticed that the female chases the slightly bigger male sometimes. I thought that was odd. I noticed that the male doesn't move too much. He pretty much just stays either in a corner on the bottom, or the top. He doesn't swim around and doesn't eat. If the female chases him, he swims just fine. He looks healthy, all fins are nice and spread out and pointy. He doesn't seem to have any white or green spots, nothing. He looks very healthy. But he doesn't eat and doesn't move. At first I thought it was KH or GH, like I said my water is very soft but the female seems fine with it, although she is very scared of me I don't know what the problem could be. Could anyone advise? I can provide pictures, but the fish looks just fine. For now I put the male into a breeding box in the tank as I don't have a spare one and he doesn't swim around anyway. I can't figure it out. From my searches it could be parasites or some kind of infection but I'm new and don't really know. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
ps. I know goldfish and tropical fish don't match. The goldfish I used to cycle was supposed to be fed to my girlfriend's snake but I stole it and now don't have the heart to kill it. He survived the snake and went through the cycle so his name is Lucky and he looks great and he seems very happy.
I bought 2 dwarf gouramis. One flame-kissed female (rounded top fin), and one blue male (pointy top fin). So I very slowly acclimated both of them to the water as I realize my water is probably softer than the store's. I noticed that the female chases the slightly bigger male sometimes. I thought that was odd. I noticed that the male doesn't move too much. He pretty much just stays either in a corner on the bottom, or the top. He doesn't swim around and doesn't eat. If the female chases him, he swims just fine. He looks healthy, all fins are nice and spread out and pointy. He doesn't seem to have any white or green spots, nothing. He looks very healthy. But he doesn't eat and doesn't move. At first I thought it was KH or GH, like I said my water is very soft but the female seems fine with it, although she is very scared of me I don't know what the problem could be. Could anyone advise? I can provide pictures, but the fish looks just fine. For now I put the male into a breeding box in the tank as I don't have a spare one and he doesn't swim around anyway. I can't figure it out. From my searches it could be parasites or some kind of infection but I'm new and don't really know. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
ps. I know goldfish and tropical fish don't match. The goldfish I used to cycle was supposed to be fed to my girlfriend's snake but I stole it and now don't have the heart to kill it. He survived the snake and went through the cycle so his name is Lucky and he looks great and he seems very happy.