YourPalCM said:
There's really no reason to think I have a water quality issue.. **...Ammonia, Nitrates and Nitrites have all been 0 for nearly 5 months - which is long ago since the Gouramis have only been in there for 12 days (I actually thought it was about 16 days but I just checked the receipt.)
Your NITRATES are ALWAYS zero 8O when you are only changing once a week and not that much? That would be rarer than hen's teeth!!
My daughter's barebotton tank with three growouts and three otos of the same age is not ALWAYS zero! You actually meant is near zero most the time..right?
Why the resistance to water quality check and the It hurts nothing and means everything to the fish :? Your tank is ony ONE month past the average cycling age of 4 weeks. And you only recently moved an overstock out which means your levels should have been fairly high with your nitrAtes for a large part of the time! :?
And I think it was missed how long you had the fish
before it looked sick when suggestion was made to return it... the ichy fish is gone..it is the gourami now suffering.
You are thinking of taking a SICK fish, that has now been exposed to ich which it definitely did not have back to the
lfs...with a story of illness? Right?
Please don't fudge it and say it's gill is an injury and expose his likely healthy population if he trusts you and plunks it back in. Taking advantage of his most uncommon 2 week guarantee.
Here is a read..old but valid:
Posted by Allivymar in: [i said:
I'm sick of changing water weekly[/i]: Fri Oct 10, 2003 8:46 pm ] Part of the issue with high nitrates is when its combined with lax water changing. Theres 2 interesting articles that talk about nitrates (and one also discusses "old tank syndrome") that I'm posting cause I'm too tired to explain it myself
LOL
Nitrate Reduction And How Often Should I Clean My Tank:
http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquasource/nitratereduction.shtml
Old Tank Syndrome:
http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquasource/oldtanksyndrome.shtml
I do changes once a week; I find nitrates rarely make 15
ppm on that regimen.
Read the old tank syndrome and the fast fatalities on new introduced fish part...
Water is ALWAYS the first suspect of fish that sicken or die of anything not obvious like ich or velvet..and even those are often caused by water quality. You will
always be questioned on it by
someone here at this site no matter HOW long you say have kept fish or had a tank going.
Even an old tank can have a sudden swing because a change in tap; or a power outtage while you are away causing the filter to be damaged or killed outright and cause the whole cycle to crash and start again.
Mini -cycles are hard to catch with weekly testing because they are there and gone in a couple days and all you see is the damages. But they do INDEED happen . Specially in a tank that is barely above the cycle mark like yours. And
all of us get complacent when things are going good....forgetting this is a very delicate enclosed system that can crash super fast!
Now about your gourami........ if they happen to be dwarf
since you only have two you need to get more or get rid of them anyway. 2 will harrass each other untuil one is dead..specially if they are opposite sex. an angry male will outright kill an unwilling female. Number one cause of damage on gourami is gourami., But that would be anal fish damage, damage above the eye and damage on the back of the dorsal fin. If they are any other gourami species this is not applicable.
The symptom you first said near and around the pectoral joint and the gill WILL be a gill problem. Ill look for an image of a gourami so you can understand....
If it simply overate, was constipated or had an intestinal problem, you'd see a rounding of the abdomen from a straight on view. And it would go away in couple days..unlike bettas...gourami rarely STAY bound up. A female could be full of eggs adn get really rounds..but NOT near the gill. Gourami are hardy little fish, very responsive to most meds and weak to nitirte/nitrate levels in the water because of the already inefficient gills.
They also do not do well with certain oily meds that contaminate the labyrinth organ and cause pneumonia like Melafix. Betta are so susceptible that they made the dilute bettfix form of the med.
Don't give up..maybe a pic can clear things on what it has.....
you NEED to know . Even if you get the fish gone, if it is a bacteria or parasite..it wil still be resentin your tank.