I'm currently treating my now 7 Cherry Barbs for fin rot, who despite still being very shy and not really eating seem to be getting better.

My NEW Problem:-

My Dwarf Gourami seems to be unable to keep herself afloat, she sinks to the bottom if she doesn't swim and is currently resting on a plant not really moving.


She also seems very bloated

What could be wrong with her???????

What should i do????

Since writing she is now on the bottom on the tank 'breathing heavily'

What's your water reading?
According to what you've said, i think it's swim bladder!
There's not really any medicine to treat this but give her a lots lots of oxygen or she'll drown!

You should get some airstone as soon as possible to provide her enough oxygen. Dwarf gourami are labyrinth fish which have special organ to take oxygen from air, which is also their main source of oxygen! So if she can't swim to the surface, give her lots of oxygen in water until she's healed and able to swim again

What med are you treating the fin rot with?

Meds can remove alot of oxygen from the water so maybe this is affecting your gourami?

As nathan said get an air stone in the tank to get some more oxygen in there.

If you could also post water readings just to rule anything else out.

Hopefully it's a quick fix!

Sadly I was too late. She died

I had an airstone already running already and I was using Esha 2000.

Very upsetting have only had the fish a few months and there dying I'm fearing the worse for the cherry barbs too as they still appear stresses and I have no idea why

So sorry Rob

Could you post your water readings? Just so we know if that was a problem. Don't want you losing your barbs aswell

thanks miss P.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20

I keep checking water quality but there isn't a problem with it. That's Wat makes it hard, just don't know what it is.

So sorry to hear that Rob
Is there any other physical sign of the fish before dying?

Keep treating the barb with eSha 2000 and a close look at them to see if any other unusual thing happen :)

Hi Rob,

The symptoms you described sound like dropsy, usually as a result of internal bacterial infection which can affect the swimbladder as a side effect. Normally eSHa 2000 is the treatment of choice for that, and as you were already using it for the fin rot on the barbs it sounds like there was nothing you could have done differently to help her

Dwarf Gourami are sadly very prone to contracting these kinds of infections as too are Honey Gourami. I lost mine to similar infections eventually, though one did manage to recover three times before she finally succumbed a week ago. In those cases there were no other fish with symptoms and water was fine as in your case, so I think it's just "one of those things". DG have been severely inbred and weakened as a consequence so we do see this rather too often unfortunately

Just to be absolutely sure we've ruled out any other possibilities I'd like to run through a few quick questions if that's OK?

From your profile your tank is 60 litres, tap pH is 7, tap nitrates 40-50ppm, gH 70-140 and kH 0-70 and current stock is 7 Cherry Barbs and 4 Otos. Can you recheck tap water gH and kH and post the actual results for me and confirm that everything else is still correct? Is the tap pH quoted straight from the tap or is it after standing for 24 hours?

I know you use a nitrate filter so the water going into the tank is nitrate free. Can you check the pH of water which has been through the nitrate filter as sometimes that can alter it?

Can you also post pH, gH and kH for the tank, and which water conditioner you use when doing water changes?

Thanks

Hi fish lady,

I've just tested gh and gh and am shocked by the results.
from the tap
Kh 8
Gh 14

I'm not sure if this is because its a weekend though?
Ph is more like 7.2 and that is after 24hrs but the site only let's me put either 7 or 7.5

From the tank
Ph 7.2
Kh 7
Gh 12

How can my water have changed soooooo much since dec/jan?

I use prime conditioner its not poss to check the Ph after its gone though nitrate remover now but I tested it last water chane and Ph was the same.

Cud the new found hardness b the problem?

Just a stab in the dark (Noodle will probably be able to tell you more) but your water company may be drawing from another source for some reason. Water shortage maybe, or they might just draw from different places in different parts of the year?