Kentaaa
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
This morning everyone and everything in the tank was A-OK, nothing at all out of the ordinary. I went about my normal routine, 5ml of Seachem Excel and a pinch of flakes for breakfast. The ONLY thing I did differently out of my normal routine was add about 5ml of Seachem Prime. I did this because the tank receives a cube of either Hikari frozen bloodworms or brine (alternated) every day. To thaw the cubes I place them in a solo cup with a splash of hot tap water. I have well water which goes through a chlorinator, so I figure every day when they are fed a small amount of chlorine must go into the tank. To compensate, I add 5ml of Prime once every two weeks or so. I haven't used my Prime in a few weeks (the bottle is only about a month old) and when I opened it this morning a waft of extremely potent smell came from the bottle. I know it says on the back of the bottle that sulfur smell is normal, but it has never smelt THAT strong.
Fast forward a few hours, I notice my Gold Leopard Gourami is swimming around frantically. He is breathing from the top normally and eating normally. He almost seems to be "rocking" back and forth. He will occasionally go to the bottom of the tank (which he never does normally) sit on the gravel for a second or two then dart back up to the top to breathe. Normally when he turns to swim in a different direction he does so in a wide half circle. Now when he turns he does so rapidly and by almost "folding" himself in half and whips around. He seems to be disrupting the other fish in the tank. I have had him over two years, probably closer to three. My angel and rainbows seem stressed because of him. The tank is 46g so usually there is plenty of room for everyone to coexist peacefully. However, everyone seems to be in a tizzy.
The water parameters are perfectly normal. My API master test kit indicates 0ppm of Nitrite, 0.25ppm of Ammonia (it has been at this level since the beginning, will not drop), 0ppm Nitrate, and a pH of 8.2. I know the pH is a little high for community fish but once again it has been this way since the beginning, the fish don't seem to mind it, and there is not much I can do about it since I have well water which is naturally very hard.
While typing this my husband has just yelled from the living room that the Gourami is now occasionally rubbing himself on the glass. This is what I was afraid of. Everything I read online about Gouramis, infections, and diseases did not seem to apply to my situation because he was not trying to rub himself on decor or the glass. Like I said he's not doing it constantly, but I have seen him do it about two times and my husband has seen him do it once. I am a little freaked out because in the past I have lost a whole tank of fish do to a Nitrite spike and I remember how devastating it was, and I do not want to go through that again. Like I said, MOST of the other fish seem completely normal. The only ones acting strangely are of course the Gourami, the Angel, my Bosemani & Australian Rainbow and for some reason my Clown Loach. The Clown Loach appeared to be "falling" to the side while swimming, but would catch himself and prop back up to normal before totally going sideways. He since has stopped doing that and now (for the time being) looks normal. My mollies, Cory cat, glass cats, and Dojo all seem unaffected.
What could be causing this? At first my husband thought that maybe they were all hungry. Since that nitrite spike I have HEAVILY cut back on how much food they receive. They receive flakes in the morning and one block of frozen in the evening as opposed to FOUR blocks of frozen spread out through the day and two pinches of flakes (spread out) as well. After my husband suggested that I fed them a block of brine and they all seemed to go back to normal. I assumed maybe they were just very hungry. But now, about two hours later they're back at it.
My only other guess is that either the Gourami is sick with some type of disease and him being stressed is stressing the other fish out, OR I know it's a bit far fetched but could my Prime have gone bad and that's what caused the fish to act this way? Like I said it's less than a month old, BUT it's been sitting on the shelf for about two weeks. The very strong smell worried me and there were white crystals around the cap where some must have dried. I did shake the bottle vigorously before adding it this morning though since it had been sitting.
I attached a video below. Unfortunately I could not get footage of him rubbing himself on the walls. This is the darting and a bit of the "rocking" I mentioned.
Please help! What should I do?!
https://youtu.be/UacDHQxKxk4
I also took this photo of him just yesterday. If that has any significance.
Fast forward a few hours, I notice my Gold Leopard Gourami is swimming around frantically. He is breathing from the top normally and eating normally. He almost seems to be "rocking" back and forth. He will occasionally go to the bottom of the tank (which he never does normally) sit on the gravel for a second or two then dart back up to the top to breathe. Normally when he turns to swim in a different direction he does so in a wide half circle. Now when he turns he does so rapidly and by almost "folding" himself in half and whips around. He seems to be disrupting the other fish in the tank. I have had him over two years, probably closer to three. My angel and rainbows seem stressed because of him. The tank is 46g so usually there is plenty of room for everyone to coexist peacefully. However, everyone seems to be in a tizzy.
The water parameters are perfectly normal. My API master test kit indicates 0ppm of Nitrite, 0.25ppm of Ammonia (it has been at this level since the beginning, will not drop), 0ppm Nitrate, and a pH of 8.2. I know the pH is a little high for community fish but once again it has been this way since the beginning, the fish don't seem to mind it, and there is not much I can do about it since I have well water which is naturally very hard.
While typing this my husband has just yelled from the living room that the Gourami is now occasionally rubbing himself on the glass. This is what I was afraid of. Everything I read online about Gouramis, infections, and diseases did not seem to apply to my situation because he was not trying to rub himself on decor or the glass. Like I said he's not doing it constantly, but I have seen him do it about two times and my husband has seen him do it once. I am a little freaked out because in the past I have lost a whole tank of fish do to a Nitrite spike and I remember how devastating it was, and I do not want to go through that again. Like I said, MOST of the other fish seem completely normal. The only ones acting strangely are of course the Gourami, the Angel, my Bosemani & Australian Rainbow and for some reason my Clown Loach. The Clown Loach appeared to be "falling" to the side while swimming, but would catch himself and prop back up to normal before totally going sideways. He since has stopped doing that and now (for the time being) looks normal. My mollies, Cory cat, glass cats, and Dojo all seem unaffected.
What could be causing this? At first my husband thought that maybe they were all hungry. Since that nitrite spike I have HEAVILY cut back on how much food they receive. They receive flakes in the morning and one block of frozen in the evening as opposed to FOUR blocks of frozen spread out through the day and two pinches of flakes (spread out) as well. After my husband suggested that I fed them a block of brine and they all seemed to go back to normal. I assumed maybe they were just very hungry. But now, about two hours later they're back at it.
My only other guess is that either the Gourami is sick with some type of disease and him being stressed is stressing the other fish out, OR I know it's a bit far fetched but could my Prime have gone bad and that's what caused the fish to act this way? Like I said it's less than a month old, BUT it's been sitting on the shelf for about two weeks. The very strong smell worried me and there were white crystals around the cap where some must have dried. I did shake the bottle vigorously before adding it this morning though since it had been sitting.
I attached a video below. Unfortunately I could not get footage of him rubbing himself on the walls. This is the darting and a bit of the "rocking" I mentioned.
Please help! What should I do?!
https://youtu.be/UacDHQxKxk4
I also took this photo of him just yesterday. If that has any significance.
