How vulnerable are Dwarf Gourami's to high PH levels

[chval]

In January I set up a 55 gallon tank equipped with a Penguin 350, heater & light. In it I have 2 - black skirt tetras, 3 - phantom tetras, 6 - guppies, 2 - cory cats, 1 - pleco & 2 - chinese algae (I think).

Here's my problem. On June 11th I brought home two Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami's. I bought them in a town 125 miles away from home. They packaged each fish separate since I had a two hour drive home. Once I got home, I floated the bags to equalize the temperatures and then I opened the bags and started adding some of my tank water to each bag. One fish died within 3 hours and the other within 24. I had done a partial water change two days prior to this and when the first fish started acting weird I checked my water parameters (just in case) and my ammonia was not zero but may have been closer to 5(or whatever the next color was) so I decided to do another partial change. Whenever I do a water change, I add stress coat & stress zyme. I had decided that these fish had become stressed on the two- hour ride home or else it had to do with my water PH.

My LFS uses the exact same water source that I do and they do not adjust for PH. So I decided to check them out and lo and behold they had the same gourami's so last Monday (18th) I brought home two more. They seemed to be fine. One kind of hid a lot of the time but the other was swimming around and eating fine. Well, yesterday I pulled out the one that hid and this morning I pulled out the other one. Now I'm ready to pull out my hair!

So at noon today I test the parameters on my tank and these are the readings: (API Freshwater Master Test Kit)

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
PH - 8.2

I know that there are ways to adjust the water PH but is there a form of neutralizerthat you can add as I am doing a water change with my Python system.

Do you think the PH is the problem?

Sure could use some good advice.

Thanks,

Connie H

 

[BillD]

I don't know that the ph had anything to do with it. However, you said that the LFS doesn't adjust pH, which is typical, but what was their pH? I don't think that pH is something to be concerned about, unless the reason for the pH difference is a radically different TDS (total Dissolved Solids). The other thing I wonder about, is how an LFS, 2 hours away, uses the same water source. Unless the water comes from the same plant, coming from the same body of water, doesn't make it the same. The treatmanet plant may be adding things to alter thechemical composition of the water.
If this tank was set up in January, it seems odd that the nitrate level is zero. That is normally only seen in newly setup, uncycled tanks. In addition, the extreme colour morphs of dwarf gouramis have a reputation of being weak and fragile. You would be better off with the natural colour variety, in my opinion; they are quite pretty and colourful. This isn't much help, but hopefully, it is a place to start.

 

[chval]

The LFS was the second set of fish and they are the ones with the same water source.

 

[Zagz]

A stable ph is better than an ideal ph. I agree it seems strange you have no nitrates. The first set of gourami's may have been stressed and were susceptible to the ammonia in the tank.
It may be that the gourami's weren't healthy from the lfs's but that is unlikely due to the fact that you got them from 2 different stores. It's not impossible that they were from the same supplier but unlikely.

You might want to try and drip acclimate them over a longer period of time when adding them to your tank. Also highly recommended a QT tank for 2 weeks to ensure they don't bring any illness into your tank.

What kind of test kits are you using? Liquid or strips?

 

[chval]

AP Liquid. I know my tank cycled because a couple months back the ammonia went down, then nitrites rose and then decreased and nitrates had tested higher than zero. I will retest tomorrow.

Connie

 

[roka64]

Typically the fish's color would fade if the pH was wrong.

 

[jsoong]

I doubt it was pH. My water is 7.8-8.0, and the DG (powder blue as well) is doing just fine. He is from a lfs so would be in same water as mine, but I drip acclimatize him over 1/2 hr or more anyway.

 

[chval]

I did some water testing this morning and these are the results:

Straight from the tap:
Ammonia – 1
Nitrite – 0
Nitrate – 0
PH – 8.8

Tank readings:
Ammonia - .25 - will be doing a partial water change
Nitrite – 0
Nitrate – 5
PH – 8.0

I treat my tank with Stress Coat & Stress Zyme.

When I wrote my original message, I was at work and didn’t remember the number order on the tests. The ammonia was 0 to .25 – I was just guessing the number in the first message. My pleco is about 2 1/2” long. No I haven’t taken any of my rocks (substrate) or decorations out for cleaning – so that’s not the problem. Yes, I have two bio-wheels.

Connie