Abandoned Gourami

[Crow]

I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that while doing a sweep of the dorms of the college where I work after summer school, I found two aquariums, one glass 10G and one acrylic 29G with all the trappings, and a 15G? terrarium.

The bad news is the 29G had a very neglected gourami in it. The water had been left to evaporate for so long that the filter sucker tube was above the water line. I thought the gourami was dead but I saw it was breathing. Then I thought to put it out of it's misery cause it wouldn't move. But when I went after it with the net, it seemed to swim ok, even though it didn't move until I touched it.

So I decided to rescue it, though I figured the move to my house would kill it. Fortunately, I had set up the 10G the afternoon before for a quarantine tank. When I got it into the new tank with clean water, boy did it perk up instantly, and is now fairly lazy but swims around occasionally.

It still has many problems though. It's very fat, possibly from overfeeding, but also possibly from dropsy. It has a grayish color. It's pretty lethargic. I've had it for a week and a half, and haven't seen it eat yet, though he does respond to the sight of the food. He sees it, but then ignores it. Its two long feely tentacle things are nothing but stubs, I don't know what happenned to them. And he keeps his fins clamped most of the time.

I've been treating it with Maracyn and Maracyn II for dropsy and body slime (though I have no experience at diagnosising fish diseases at all). Though it definately has improved since I first saw it in it's smelly water, swimming around and getting a little bit of color, it hasn't improved any since that first couple of hours with clean water.

Any suggestions on what I should do for the poor fella? I've named him Angry Fishy, since I imagine he has an extreme desire to take out revenge on his previous owners. He seems to like me though

 

[Allivymar]

First off, coupla kudos coming your way for attempting to save that poor guy!

Surprisingly, some of the prob may be the new water, for a coupla reasons. When you put him into fresh water from that skanky nasty stuff he was in, chances are the water parameters were very diff. I'll bet he went from a tank with a totally dif Ph, and high nitrates (and prob other icky things) to a normal tank. Did you have a chance to acclimate him to the new water?

The other thing water related is have you checked the current parameters? Whats the current ammonia/nitrite levels? This guy is really going to need clean water with NO ammonia or nitrites to make it. Make sure the QT, if it isn't a cycled tank, is free of those nitrogenous wastes.

The antibiotics IMHO are a good thing in this case. Normally I wouldn't recommend them if there isn't a sure diagnosis, but chances are this guy is horribly stressed and susceptible to all sorts of fishy disease. Do keep in mind tho, antibiotics will mess with your bacterial colony; another reason to keep a close eye on water parameters.

If there is any ammonia/nitrites in the water, do a water change immediately to dilute em. Best thing for this guy is fresh clean water. He has a lot of healing to do, and thats the number one tx. He's been thru a nasty experience, and time will tell if hes strong enough to get past it.

And fish can survive a week or so without eating; he may simply not be ready yet...if he doesn't eat over the weekend, try some brine shrimp. or soak the food in garlic oil (from the garlic pills found in health food stores). It may be enough to trigger a feeding response. From there he may be more willing to take foods. Just know brine shrimp are kinda like potato chips. Yummy but not very nutritious.

 

[Crow]

Did you have a chance to acclimate him to the new water?

Not really. I just acclimated him to the temperature. I didn't think of shock to *better* water conditions! 8O

The other thing water related is have you checked the current parameters? Whats the current ammonia/nitrite levels?

I used a filter, 50% of the original water and some gravel from a mature clean tank, so the cycle is going pretty quickly. I've been checking it every other day. There is a little ammonia right now, not enough that I was worried about it. But I think you're right, even that small amount may cause problems with such a sick fishy.

I'll do some frequent water changes, and try some brine shrimp. I've never heard of the garlic thing though! I might see how my other fishies like that too.

Thanks for the good advice!

 

[Allivymar]

Heh, yeah. One wouldn't think putting a fish into decent water could be a prob, but it can, especially if there is a diff in Ph (that more then anything else can shock a fish, even more then temp). Hopefully, with using some of the original water, the change wasn't too drastic.

Def try the garlic. Not only is it a food attractant, but also has some anti-parasitical properties (maybe they can't take the odor? LOL). Kent makes a garlic product for fish ( http://www.kentmarine.com/gx.html ), but you don't need to spend a lot of money; just grab the garlic capsules I mentioned before from the supermarket or the health food store and soak some of the food in it. Also, if you do brine shrimp, see if you can get live. The movement tends to trigger eating behavior. You can either grab one of those San Francisco Shrimpery kits, or even try some SeaMonkeys LOL They aren't the absolute cheapest way to go, but you most likely won't need to breed brine shrimp on a regular basis, and the containers of brine shrimp eggs for breeders will be a LOT more then you'd need.

And just a FYI about brine shrimp. Adult brine shrimp are like potato chips as I mentioned before. Baby brine shrimp, however, are extremely nutritious. Its the egg sac which carries all the proteins. Once they lose the egg sac they are just a nice snack, but prior to that are a highly nutritious meal that are often used with fish fry (angelfish for example).