PetiteTank

Hi! I have a powder blue Dwarf Gourami and its belly is portruding. It does not seem to be dropsy as it is still pretty actively swimming around the tank, mainly in the middle as it should be. I haven't seen it lying in the bottom of the aquarium. I'm not sure if it's male or female. I don't know if it's breeding. any thoughts?

Shawnie

do you have any pics? and do you know the ammonia/nitrites/nitrates of the tank? a females dorsal fin will be more round and less colorful for the fish..a male will be brighter and more pointed on his dorsal fin ....

PetiteTank

You're right. I should have started there. They're all @ .5 (ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite), temp 76 (constant, unadjustable). it's in a 10 gal right now. My 29 is 80 F, 0, 0, 0. I should move it in there and let the other one cycle for a while.

sorry, it's a bad pic.

Attached Images

gourami 001.JPG (861.0 KB, 51 views)

Shawnie

whats in the 29 gal? fish wise? what do you feed him..(it looks like a him but the pic isnt 100%) were you able to find some prime yet? if so, he can stay in his tank with daily changes and prime...your other tank with all 0's, does it have live plants? otherwise that one isnt cycled either but having all 0's is better..but that wont last for long either ....for the big belly, cut up a small piece of fresh pea the size of his eye and feed it to him for 3 days ..fast him a day and do it again for a week or so....that should help his bloat..

PetiteTank

the 29 has live plants. it has pleco, shark, clown loach and 2 more DG's (no bullying, so far). I'll go bigger later on for the sake of the first 3.

PetiteTank

My blue DG is getting worse. He's even more bloated now with an 8 inch thread-like poop hanging above him. Now he has pop-eye too!

Time

Oh no! I hope all goes well. I don't know whether to change it or not. If the diseases are the spreading type, obviously don't change it.

PetiteTank

I'm debating whether or not I should change it tomorrow, too. I don't want to stress him out even more. He's alone in the sick tank. He won't affect anyone if anything. I'm actually not sure if the poop is such a bad thing, getting all that out of his system could be a good thing.

Time

Try getting plants to consume the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. I don't know if what it has is spreadable but please research.

Lucy

I'm sorry your DG isn't doing well.
Bloating and long stringy white poo could be a sign of internal parasites.
Keep in mind though, if he was constripated he could just be getting rid of the waste that's built up in him. Poo can show as different colors depending on the diet.
Pop-eye is usually cause by poor water conditions or it could be from a bacterial infection.
Pop-eye

Either way, improving his water conditions by doing daily changes and use Prime to detox will help his immune system.
When fish are exposed to ammonia ect, their bodies spend time fighting off these stressors, leaving them open to illness because their immune system can't handle it.

Plants aren't going to help much with ammonia and nitrite, other wise we'd all have planted tanks and put fish in right away.
Daily water changes and detoxing with Prime to keep the toxins to a minimum until the tank is cycled is what helps.

PetiteTank

yeah, I've been doing that like crazy. It even brought me to the entries before about the dg sickness that rooted from singapore. no worries, I'm doing the best I can. sadly, I'm really running out of options. I'm using Maracyn II now, as much as I've been trying to avoid using antibiotic on any of my tanks. I'm on my first dosage and will have to do a bit of water change tomorrow.

PetiteTank

This is the first day I have used prime. I just found it yesteraday after an endless search but I just did a 30% wc in the morning. I did not want to add to his stress. I'll be doing another change tomorrow. The weird thing about the pooh is that he hasn't eaten in days. This is the third day. I tried to feed him little pieces of pea yesterday but he just ignored them.

Lucy

Had he been going regularly before that?
I'm glad you're doing research, not just taking opinions as gold.
We can give some ideas but, you're the best one to know exactly what symptoms and subtle differences are occuring.

PetiteTank

the pooh or the non-eating? the poo just started today. the non-eating just 3days. all my fishes are voracious eaters but I try to avoid overfeeding.

Lucy

Sorry, I should have been clearer. Before he stopped eating, was he pooing regularly?

PetiteTank

yeah, he was.

aquarist48

Hello. Sorry to hear your DG isn't feeling up to par. In the photo, in post #3 that looks like a good healthy poo to me. (or is that one of his feelers?) It's kind of hard to tell. If it's poo then his problem is not constipation but something else. I wish I knew exactly what the problem is. Keep up with your water changes and Prime until your water readings are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 5-10 nitrates.
Wish you and your fish the best for a speedy recovery.
Ken

PetiteTank

thanks. my little guy is proving to be quite the fighter. that's his feeler.