jprime84

I have two pearls, one male and one female. I have had them for about a week. At first, they were very shy and hiding, occasionally getting spooked and flying around the tank sometimes crashing into stuff.


Now, the male is doing great. He is full of color, eating regularly, and casually swimming around the tank.

The female however, spends a lot of the time near the bottom, has very little coloration, and has some injuries to her head where she had crashed into things. She seems to swim normally, but what has me the most concerned is I have not seen her eat anything for a while now. The male doesnt bother her at all, and sometimes even appears to come over near her and see whats up.

The female does come up once in a while for a quick gulp of air, but does not take any food even if it is right in front of her face.

I feel like I can maybe see some specks on her fins. I dont know how to tell if it is ICH or if its just particles in the water.

What should I do?

Gouramiguy17

I think you should start adding a bit of garlic guard and don't worry, you gourami is just nervous, I had a 3 spot that took about 2 weeks to finally start eating with the rest of my fish, your female probably eats off the ground when the lights to out
Btw do u have anything sharp on the tank? What size tank r they in?

jprime84

She is in a 38g tank, plenty of room. There is a plastic rock and some driftwood in it.

I am more concerned about these specks, the more images I see the more I am wondering if it is ich.


I think I will transfer her to my empty 20g tank. What should I do then? Add garlic (oil?) how much do I add for a 20g tank?

Jaysee

It can be tough to spot ich on pearls. It's not a shocker that a stressed fish developed ich. The best thing you can do, especially if it's early and there are only a few spots, is to maintain excellent water quality and watch closely.

If you notice it getting worse, then I would move her and any others to the 20 and treat with ich guard or some other comparable medication.

Gouramiguy17

You soak their food in it, you can get it at petco. I might q her and add some slime coat guard or prime to help her slime coat. Keep the water clean and hope for the best, if she gets noticable ich spots then you can add some ich medicine but only as a last resort. A safe thing you can do is to do daily gravel vacs to get the ich spores out of the gravel

Shawnie

have you checked the water parimeters? in a freshly cycled tank, and adding fish too soon, she could have an ammonia issue...

Gouramiguy17

Oh I forgot about that, thx shawnie

jprime84

No, the 38g has 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and about 7 nitrate, i have tested daily. All of the other fish in the tank are acting normally. I am moving her to the 20g tonight. Its a few degrees warmer in there, and I have treated the water with Prime and Aquarium Salt. I will be able to monitor if she eats anything or not easier as well.

Shawnie

I wouldnt put a labyrinth fish in salt..especially a stressed one...could the male have picked on her? gouramis dont play nice together even opposite sexes

Gouramiguy17

I'm thinking that the male is pickng on her during the night, it might get better if they can establish territories but gouramis have different personalities, like bettas

jprime84

I havent seen that behavior at all. They even would get close to each other sometimes without any aggressive behavior. In any case, they are separated now so we will see if she gets better.

ilikefish

Just raise the temp fto 85 for two weeks and then bring it down ich dies at temps of 82.5...

Jaysee

Not entirely true. Raising the temperature into the 80's speeds up the life cycle of the parasites, but it doesn't kill them. Once the spots fall of, they sink to the bottom, where they multiply and go out in search of new hosts. It's at this time that the medication kills the parasite, because once it's embedded in the fish, it is safe from chemicals.

aquarist48

Hello Jprime. Sorry to hear your Gourami isn't feeling up to par. If you believe she has ICH, raise your temperature to 84 or 85 degrees and leave it there for two weeks. There is no need to quarantine your fish for ICH because if one fish has it then the entire tank is infected. ICH cannot reproduce in temperatures over 82. Do two gravel vacuums each week to remove the spores that fall off the fish and into the substrate. You may want to add an air stone/supply line if you don't have one in the tank now. Warmer waters require more oxygen. No salt!
Best of luck for a full speedy recovery. Keep us posted.
Ken

Ich: An Old Cure for an Old Disease

jprime84

New symptoms here:

Ive watched the fish more closely in isolation. Theres some kind of bulge or something on one side of its body. I watched for a while the fish spends most of the time by swimming in tight circles with its body arched so it looks like a "C" from above. Sometimes it does this backwards. And again, with no stimulus, the fish would occasionally start swimming like it was insane going as fast as possible in whatever direction it was facing, crashing into all sorts of stuff.

I am still not certain on ich, I am not seeing any symptoms on any of the fish in the original tank. I am going to call the LFS where I got her and see if I can return her, as she has been like this the whole time. The other fish I got that day - including the other gourami - are eating and happy.

jprime84

Well, my LFS took her back. They were much more equiped to care for her than I was. Hopefully she turns around.