# sick gourami



## lashalove (Dec 19, 2006)

when I went to feed my dwarf flame gourami this morning he was laying sideways on the bottom barely breathing, I lifted him up to the surface with a net and he started eating right away, figured he was just being weird so I let him out of the net, and he sank right to the bottom.

the top of his head, which is usually creamy orange colored is all blueish-gray (lack of oxygen?) He looks fine (no bumps, injuries, etc). I'm about to go test the water and will return with the stats in a few minutes. I'm gonna try to get him back in the net so he'll be closer to the surface to breath.


Is it swim bladder? He's not swimming sideways or anything, it seems to be a struggle just to swim up to the surface.

I will return with more details... thanks


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## lashalove (Dec 19, 2006)

ammonia - 0
nitrIte - 0
nitrAte - a little darker than 0 but less than 5
pH - 8.2 (very hard water)
temp 80-82

I tried to feed him some pea in case he's constipated or something, but he wasnt interested in that.. of course he did just eat a few flakes.

I have him in the net hanging at the top of the tank so he's able to surface for air, but even tho its only a couple inches he's still struggling to get up there.


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## lashalove (Dec 19, 2006)

Sigh...

Here's a little video I took of him, shows him trying to swim up to the surface and then just sitting on the bottom of the net.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8xvoWejtFE


I have the net further down in the water now, acting more like a shelf.. he's free to swim out if he wants, but he hasn't.... he just lays in there on his side until i approach the tank then he rights himself, but can't really swim anywhere.

Should I be pulling him up to the surface or can he breath?

I gave him 2 more small flakes, he gobbled them right up.


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## Kyoberr (Dec 6, 2006)

I don't know, he just sounds sick to me, but I have to admit the water levels don't mean anything to me. Maybe someone else on here will tell you more because I'm not sure.


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## s10fishguy (Mar 3, 2007)

i had the same thing happen to mine i dont know what happened but eventually he just keeled over


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2007)

he is doomed and ur vid is private we cant watch


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## Giddy012 (Feb 16, 2007)

Sorry to say same thing happened to one of mine, he died about 4 days after I put him in a breeder net. I had put him in the net so that he could also be closer tothe surface. On a good note, I have heard stories about these guys being wierd like that, one day they are fine, the next day it's just laying on the bottom, and then for no reason it's fine again.


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2007)

swordtailbreedr said:


> he is doomed and ur vid is private we cant watch


What do you base this on? Your comment was a little inappropriate.


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## lashalove (Dec 19, 2006)

Giddy012 said:


> On a good note, I have heard stories about these guys being wierd like that, one day they are fine, the next day it's just laying on the bottom, and then for no reason it's fine again.



Well, that appears to be the case... last night at dinner time he swam right up to the surface as energetic as ever... same this morning at breakfast. He's back to his creamy orange color and not all blue-gray anymore. Gave him a lecture about giving me gray hair(lol), so hopefully thats the end of that.


Swordtailbreedr... some comments are best left untyped.


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## Ackerman651 (Oct 30, 2006)

i have a dwarf blue powder thats doing the same thing, he just kinda lays at a weird angle on the ground breathing, or at the surface for a long time in the same spot. havent seen him eating much


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## lashalove (Dec 19, 2006)

Sorry to hear that Ackerman.

I had to put mine down, yesterday. Poor little guy fought a good fight tho :rip:


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## LegendKiller (May 27, 2007)

That sounds kind of like what happened to my gourami. I noticed a couple of days ago my red dwarf? (something like that) was looking like his color was a little bleached out. I thought maybe it was because he was getting older...just over a year... He was the same this morning but today after I got home from work and errands he was just about competely white and dead on the bottom of my tank. Does anyone know what could have caused it? Or where I could look to hopefully find out what happened? I have 2 more gourami's in the tank. It's a 29 gallon tank.


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