Barbara

I am having a lot of trouble with my gouramis - they keep dying. They seem to get all listless and then their tails fall off and the other fish start attacking them. Help what do I do? I am so new at this. All water readings are: PH 7.4 Nitrates, 0 Nitrites 0 Amonia 0. I have one of my gouramis in an isolation tank.

susitna-flower

I don't know why a 4 month old tank would not have any nitrate!

My speculation on your fish is that they are overcrowded, if you still have them stocked as in your profile, and they are suffering from fin rot, I have never really heard of tails "falling off", but when the water condition is poor, they might get fin rot, and get picked on by other fish.

What kind of water tests are you using? Most here recommend API Master test kit (liquid)....If you are using that, then you need to shake bottle #2 for nitrate, more vigorously. You actually have to strike it on something hard as you shake it for one minute. This breaks up the crystals in the solution, and will give a more accurate reading.

Water changes will help with the water quality, and I would also suggest you need to reduce the number of fish in this tank to match the recommended stocking of 1" of adult fish per gallon of than. That would be 18 inches of fish (as they are expected to be as adults) Currently you have approx. 28" if your gouramis are not dwarf. Good Luck

Barbara

Thank you so muck for your advice, I have ordered another tank to house the bigger fish. My gouramis are dwarf ones, they are really cute and I would hate to loose any more.

I do have a liquid test kit and will try what you suggest. My tank and fish were given to me as a Christmas present and unfortunately it has been a frustrating learning process for me as I have been unable to find anyone who can give me proper advice.

I have been doing weekly water changes of about 10% of the tank. I have plastic plants as that what was recommended to me to us, but they get dirty so quickly, are they the right ones to have?

Halibut

Real plants are a bit more maintenance but they will help with filtering nitrate. Weekly changes are about right although you should consider changing closer to 25%-50% and doing gravel vac on 1/2 the tank once a month. Make sure to cycle the new tank before moving your fish into it. When choosing filters you want to figure 10x the size of the tank for HOB power filters for example your tank would need to pump about 700 liters per hour with the aqua-clear30 being rated at 568LPH. This can also help lead to more frequent and larger water changes.

Barbara

Thanks for that, I tend to clean the gravel or as much as I can when I change the water - will change more, I was a bit unsure as to whether it would upset the cycle.