Strange Death

[newhobbist]

Last Saturday I bought another Gourami, which looked like something between moonlight and golden gouramis. It became the largest Gourami in my tank, with my Golden just a bit smaller and Dwarf and Pearl ones much smaller.
Golden Gourami started to chase the newcommer from the first day and by Monday it ate a half of the newcommer's tail. Then I noticed that Golden's face became light in color, which looked as if it lost a top layer of its "skin" from constant hammering the body of the newcommer. On Tuesday I noticed the same thing with a face of my Dwarf. Thinking that it might be biting the newcommer also, I decided to move the new fish out of the tank to stop aggression. Unfortunately, I was late and found it dead yesterday morning.
Now, weird things started to happen. When Golden Gourami stopped swimming, its body could not stay still but moved back and fourth. A long string of its poo (about 6-8") was following the fish. The Dwarf was found sitting on the graver with even greater area of its face looking almost very light to compare to coloration of the rest of the body. By the end of the day, Golden Gourami died, so did the Dwarf by next morning (today).
What can it be? Water parameters are good with slightly high Nitrate (around 40). Other fish, including Pearl Gourami look and behave normally. I did not quaranteen the new fish, which might be the key, but, still, what might be the reason for this sudden epidemical death?

 

[Acer]

im thinking it could be stress related.. even if one fish wasnt the one singled out and chased around it can still be under stress..

 

[FawnN]

The stress from being chased and the nitrates could have been too much for him.

I would suggest you try and get your nitrates down, with a water change. How often are you doing water changes?

 

[FMJnaX]

One thing that stands out to me is the "long string of poo". What was the coloration of it? Was it white? This is very often a sign that you may have a disease (parasite) of some sort running around.

 

[newhobbist]

One thing that stands out to me is the "long string of poo". What was the coloration of it? Was it white? This is very often a sign that you may have a disease (parasite) of some sort running around.

It was white. However, only one fish had it.

im thinking it could be stress related.. even if one fish wasnt the one singled out and chased around it can still be under stress..

Might be stress. But, I've never heard that a fish that is aggressive and attacts other fish dies because of stress. Usually, this fish is causing stress in others.

 

[newhobbist]

I would suggest you try and get your nitrates down, with a water change. How often are you doing water changes?

I change 25-30% of water every 2 weeks.

 

[rich311k]

You may want to change that to once a week. Your fish will thank you. I thik the new fish had a intestinal problem and it was passed to your other fsh.

 

[Guest]

the white stringy poo is almost a positive sign of internal parasites... other factors may be involved, but Gouramis tend to have a high mortality for parasites and i would suggest treating for that as well as the other factors

 

[newhobbist]

You may want to change that to once a week. Your fish will thank you. I thik the new fish had a intestinal problem and it was passed to your other fsh.

I've just checked Nitrate and new readings showed 40. I will start doing PWC every week.
Another thing is that PH is dropping. It was 7.0 two months ago and now it is 6.2. I don't have anything (at least I think so) that would lower PH, but it still goes down.

the white stringy poo is almost a positive sign of internal parasites... other factors may be involved, but Gouramis tend to have a high mortality for parasites and i would suggest treating for that as well as the other factors

What is good remedy from internal parasites? The only thing I have is Pepso Food with I started giving my fish this morning.

 

[rich311k]

Assuming your tap water PH is 7 or above the partial water changes every week will help keep the ph stable and will probably bring it up a bit.

 

[Guest]

I used the "tank buddies" parisite tabes before when i had gouramis and it seemed to work, but i think there is also food for parasites.

 

[FMJnaX]

I've used the Jungle Anti-Parasitic pellets (food) with EXCELLENT success. So much so that I even use it a prevenative medicine.

 

[erik7]

I've had good luck with Melafix and Pimafix as a mixture. Granted, I've only had one breakout (of what I *think* was columnaris), but it seems to do the trick!

You may want to change that to once a week. Your fish will thank you. I thik the new fish had a intestinal problem and it was passed to your other fsh.

I've just checked Nitrate and new readings showed 40. I will start doing PWC every week.
Another thing is that PH is dropping. It was 7.0 two months ago and now it is 6.2. I don't have anything (at least I think so) that would lower PH, but it still goes down.

the white stringy poo is almost a positive sign of internal parasites... other factors may be involved, but Gouramis tend to have a high mortality for parasites and i would suggest treating for that as well as the other factors

What is good remedy from internal parasites? The only thing I have is Pepso Food with I started giving my fish this morning.

 

[newhobbist]

Thank you all!