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help my fish is ill...?
ive recently got a tropical fish tank and it has been set up for around 3 weeks now. ive never had one before. I had a couple of neon tetras and guppies in there to start of the "cycle" with and have just brought a blue Dwarf Gourami. just today hes stopped being able to swim and just sinks to the bottom. He also looks quite bloated. I was wondering is there anything i can do to stop him from dying? or do i need to remove him from the tank so that the other fish dont get ill? the ph of the tank is around 6.5 and i was told by the aquarium people that it would be fine but does anyone have experience with these fish and could tell me what the ph should b if its not right. sorry guys ive just never done this before and a fish ive only just brought dying on me doesnt give me much hope.
3 Answers
- Anonymous1 decade agoFavorite Answer
I would remove him and put him into a seperate tank for the sake of the other fish you have incase he is ill or diseased. How long have you had him? If he dies I know some pet stores will refund a fish if you take it's body and a water sample to them within 24hours. Gourami's are prone to getting Tuberculosis and dying from it. Maybe stick to your tetras and guppies - they seem to be pretty foolproof. Good Luck!
- Black KatLv 61 decade ago
This may be no fault of yours. Dwarf gouramis are prone to a type of virus that has a 90% fatality rate. The symptoms reported for this are "lethargy and the darkening of body colouration, the affected fish stopped eating, sometimes had a distended abdomen and, internally, an enlarged spleen, reddened intestine and a clear amber fluid in the body cavity." From your description of the bloating, this may be the cause.
I would also say to isolate him, and do your best to make sure he has pristine water conditions. If he doesn't show any interest in eating, hold off on feeding him, uneaten food will just cause a water quality problem.
And test your water, in a new tank, the problem may just be one of a too high amount of ammonia or nitrite in the water, especially if you didn't cycle your tank before you added fish.
Source(s): http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/it... http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/dwfgdis.h... http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm - KatieLv 41 decade ago
You also have to check and make sure the temperature is right for it.
The only fish I've ever had that was bloated like that, it had dropsy. It can be treated with Maracyn-2 (that's the only thing I know of that will treat it, among other diseases. It's pretty expensive but it's always worked wonders for my fish. If it is dropsy, it must be treated right away, or the fish will die, but I'm not sure that's what it is.
Actually, you can google "what causes a fish to bloat" or "bloating in fish" and see what things it will come up with and maybe you can decide on your own what's wrong with it.
