What Is Wrong With My Fish

[taj300]

my gourami has doubled its size over night. Its stomache is two times as big as the night before and it is odd looking. Im not sure what sex it is. The tank mates are an alge eater and one silver guppie, and two small tropical fish that i dont know the names of. I put the new fish.... the guppie and the other two fish..... into the tank about a week ago and they all seemend fine.. no agression what so ever. no sickness was observable to me. but just today i discovered that my pet golden gourami's stomache is bloated and it is verry wide. the edges of its stomache are some what pale. can someone give me any tips on what might be wrong.
i will give picture if i knew how.

 

[sylvia]

It's either constipated (just don't feed any of your fish for a day and then give them some crushed, de-shelled green peas for a while) or your gourami has dropsy - usualy a symptom of internal bacterial infections.

We need to get a few things straight first off - what size tank is this we're talking about?

What exactly is the 'algae eater'?

Describe the two 'unknown' fish please.

What are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels? Buy a test kit from your fish store if you don't have one already. What's your temperature at?

The only way I know of posting pictures is to first (having taken them obviously and scanned them onto your computer or whatever) upload them to the internet - say at www.photobucket.com (it's free to sign up) and then link to the picture's URL here. Get pictures of the algae eater, sick gourami and the 2 unknown fish.

For the time being, fast all your fish in case the problem's constipation and don't feed them anything besides the green peas for a couple of days. Do a large 50% water change in case the problem is water quality-related as well.

Most probably the actual issue is a bacterial infection that needs to be treated with an antibiotic.