Lady-Lene Posted June 3, 2007 Report Share Posted June 3, 2007 My pearl gourami is going spastic. For past two days it appears to be having a fit .... thrashes around the tank frantically to the point where it threw itself out of the quarantine tank. After each episode (3 now) it appears dead, body curled around and lifeless looking, then it slowly recovers. It appears to take longer each time to recover and is not looking good this time. Floating on the top, inert and miserable looking. I don't know how old she is but the previous owner had the fish for four years .... but she does look old. Water parameters all normal, all other fish fine. Any ideas would be very appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted June 3, 2007 Report Share Posted June 3, 2007 Hi Lene, Sounds like you have something "drastically" wrong somewhere.. or your fish has contracted something. You say: My pearl gourami is going spastic. For past two days it appears to be having a fit .... thrashes around the tank frantically to the point where it threw itself out of the quarantine tank These are the symptoms of a fish in great distress, and acting as though it is trying to get away from something. One of the main causes here are "GILL INFECTIONS" or.. "GILL PARASITES" The infections can come in the form of toxic water conditions.. (high ammonia content).. which is literally "burning" the insides of the gills.. or "Labarinth" in this case. Obvious signs are "INFLAMED GILLS".. and the obvious cure is lots of water changes. The Gill Parasites are a bit harder to spot.. unless you do a gill scrape and an examination with a microscope... but a "reasonable" indication is that the fish constantly flicks against things.. much as it would with White Spot. You say: After each episode (3 now) it appears dead, body curled around and lifeless looking, then it slowly recovers. It appears to take longer each time to recover and is not looking good this time. Floating on the top, inert and miserable looking. Obviously the fish is absolutely worn out after all the stressing out.. which is why it looks lifeless for a while. One "other" thing that it "might" be.. but unlikely... I once had a tank of fish that were going crazy.. much as above. To cut a long story short... the heater glass had cracked and they were going potty each time the heater came on. I got a fair old crack as I put my hand in the water and touched the metal hood.. Some say fish can't get a shock because they are not earthed.. but a replacement heater calmed them all down... so I can't comment on whether they feel the shocks or not.. but I certainly did Being in a Quarantine Tank... it is presumed it is on it's own... Is this correct...? Take care now... Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady-Lene Posted June 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2007 Thanks for your reply Bill. Yes she is in the quarantine tank by herself. Her gills don't appear inflamed at all and there is no redness. But this morning she looks a little bit scaly (white) on top of her head. Not whitespot or even fungusy looking. Just like white scales. Its possible she always looks like that! You know when you stare at something long enough it looks odd! I've probably spent too much time ogling her :lol: She is not 'flashing' or scraping herself on things apart from the odd time (like twice a day), when she thrashes around (which lasts about 10 seconds). I saw her do it in the main tank two days ago. I had two blue gouramis in quarantine (new) waiting to be added to the main tank so when I put them in I withdrew the Pearl and quarantined her. I change 50% of the water daily in the quarantine tank and the water conditions are good. No amonia, pH 7.0, nitrites 0. I too wondered if she had touched the heater and burned herself but both the last two times it was not on. The heater is only 1 month old and I had the blue gouramis in there before adding them to the main tank and they appeared fine as do all the other fish in the main tank. No flashing or disease. One of my filters recently broke (was running two) and I ordered a new (larger) one. Did 20-40% water changes daily until the new one arrived so it is possible that she picked up something. If it were gill parasites what would I treat with? Oh and would I need to treat all the fish because I don't want to add meds to the main tank. Thanks for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted June 4, 2007 Report Share Posted June 4, 2007 Hi again, You ask: If it were gill parasites what would I treat with? Oh and would I need to treat all the fish because I don't want to add meds to the main tank. You would just treat the QT tank.. but first you have to establish that it is "indeed" a parasite.. then once you know.. the local LFS should have the meds that will sort it. Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady-Lene Posted June 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2007 Lost the Gourami - my first loss since getting new tank. Water parameters are all reading fine, filter finally going correctly (had baskets in the wrong order). All other fish are healthy and fine. I have no idea what happened to her. Maybe it was just old age? I'm checking pH, nitrites, kH etc 3 times a day though just in case. Thanks for your help anyway Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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