gourami help :-(

[fishy_love]

My super healthy and active dg has recently begun losing his antennae fin things :-( they are really thin on the ends and look split and he isn't acting like his normal little self. He is just hanging out by the heater at the surface, he did swim over to an algae disc and munched on it when I fed my snails. He seems off balance and keeps drifting to a face head up tail down position. Everybody else in the tank is doing fine. Water parameters are all normal also. I removed a snail egg pile yesterday, would that do anything bad?
1 dwarf guarami
5 Molly fish
2 platy fish
4 mystery snails
1 bn pleco baby
2 neon danio
5 African dwarf frogs

 

[BettaGal]

Snail eggs are not the problem. He looks like he may be somewhat bloated, but it's not the greatest picture to tell. If he is, I've seen much worse from my own DG, but he's also a pig and likes to steal whatever food he can. How long have you had this tank up? I suspect the problem is the danios. They are nippers, and need at least 6 to potentially keep the nipping within the danios. I think your two danios found the DG feelers to be irresistible and nipped them. How big is this tank?

 

[fishy_love]

It is 20 gallons and has been up since November.

Oh no! So the danios could be eating his feelers?! That is annoying... Would feeding them more stop this? Because I really don't want more danio if they are potentially going to also nibble on him also.
Would this cause him to be off balance? I mean he swims fine but when he gets still he starts to tilt. He didn't do this before and it's freaking me out a bit.

 

[BettaGal]

He might be bloated a little. That might be why. Gourami's naturally live in murky water, so they use the feelers too see. That's why you'll see them move around a lot.

As for the danios, feeding has nothing to do with nipping. It's their nature. Some things say if you have at least six they keep it to themselves, but I've seen someone have six with a betta and the betta gets harassed horribly. Personally, I would say never put any danios with a fish that has anything easily nipped. I would not trust those numbers. Is there a way to move the danios?

 

[fishy_love]

He actually started acting totally normal again and we have been watching the danios (we sit and watch our tank for hours lol) and they don't seem to be the meanies, it's our Molly fry but they are finally going to a new home tomorrow, our friend finally bought a tank for them.
How could I help with the bloat? He does gulp air from time to time but I thought that was normal for labyrinth fish...

 

[BettaGal]

It is normal for them to gulp air. Either fast for a day or two or you could try a blanched pea. I would say fast. I tried the pea when my DG bloated and he decided it was a football.

 

[fishy_love]

Lol!! That sounds like what my Biggie would do too ha ha ha