I went to feed my fish tonight and found my dwarf gourami laying on the bottom of the tank dead. I had checked on them earlier and everyone looked fine. So I was unsure what the problem could be. I did all my water tests (liquid kind) and they came out as follows:
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 2ppm
pH 7.8
Its a 55 gallon tank with plastic plants that was set up around the first of July. It had "cycled."
Other fish in the tank are:
3 Zebra danios
6 tiger barbs
4 angelicus loaches
I'm pretty sure it wasn't the barbs pestering the gourami. They chased him a few times when I first added them but hadn't messed with him since.
I'm really anxious to figure out the problem and solve it before I lose anymore fish. I love all my fish but I'd especially hate to lose my loaches as they were $20 a pop.
Any ideas of what the problem could be and/or what I should do to make sure I don't lose any more?
2006-10-05 17:28:47 · 5 answers · asked by Angela B 1 in Pets ➔ Fish
The 1st thing that comes to mind is your water is too basic. You should have a pH between 6-7 for these types of fish. Also given how basic it is. I'd suspect your water is fairly hard. All of these fish do better with a KH around 10.
I'd test your water hardness, and if it's high slowly reduce it. This can be done by gradually replacing some of your water with distilled water. Remember pure distilled water is bad as it lacks minerals, and it too soft. Once gotten your KH down then check the pH and try to get it to 7. (Hard water is harder to alter pH.) Remember however bad current conditions might be rapid change is always worse.
PS- Dwarf gouramis are more fragile than most fish, and will tend die more easily due to bad water conditions.
2006-10-05 21:08:05 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wow a 55 gallon and it's not overstocked :) Everything sounds like it's in check. If there were no signs that the barbs were picking on it, it just might've been sick, had internal parasites or something. Maybe it was old, or just one of those things. I was looking at getting some of those loaches, they're so neat looking, but too expensive, think they were 26. here and at Walmart-so definitely a no go. I'd just keep an eye on the others, check to make sure they're all eating and acting normal.
2006-10-06 00:37:56 · answer #2 · answered by tikitiki 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I got a dwarf gourami and it died as well. I'm not sure as to what the reason was but I also had barbs in the tank and they are notoriuos for stressing out other fish. If everything checked out chemically then perhaps it was ill or stressed out. My dominant barb stressed out a cuople of other fish as well.
2006-10-06 01:19:57 · answer #3 · answered by iakobus2000 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The occasional loos of a fish can happen in all tanks. Since your water is fine I would suggest simply keeping an eye on the fish and checking the expiry date on your food.
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2006-10-06 08:04:36 · answer #4 · answered by iceni 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
wow that's to bad, sorry for your loss, but i don't know about fish, i bought about $340.00 CDN, well my dad did, and we lost all of them, then we went for the fan tails, and they lasted the longest, we put them in our pond, and brought them in in the winter and they lasted till summer, for about 3yrs, they got big and fat, so i suppose fan tails in my opinion are the hardiest types of fish,
2006-10-06 00:33:07 · answer #5 · answered by meme rules 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋