bonn

Please help i have a 18 month old gourami. 8 days ago he started to have what appears to be a seizure. he starts to swin wildly and throw himself against the glass then sinks to the bottom of the tank. the spell last for a min. or less then he is fine. do you know what is happening and why? thank you.

sirdarksol

What are the water parameters? (Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, pH?)
What size tank?
What other fish, if any, are in the tank?
Do you have a filter and heater in the tank?
Does the fish have any little white spots on it? Do the gills look red and inflamed? Anything odd about the fish at all?

To me, this doesn't sound like a seizure, it sounds like panic, possibly due to an attempt to get away from something it thinks is hurting it. When it hits the glass, it stuns itself. Eventually, it's going to do irreparable damage (I won't lie, it's possible that it already has, but we can't change that. We can try to stop it if it hasn't happened yet)
That's why the barrage of questions. We can't figure out what's wrong until we know about what you've got going on. However, we're like CSI and House, once we have the facts, it usually takes us less than an hour to solve a case.
Good luck.

sparkling_gourami

hello i had a gold one who was 18 months who did the same thing he died by hitting himself against the glass i never could find out the reason but i know i love and miss him so much he died june 2007 if you find out the cause please let me know thank you

sirdarksol

Unfortunately, because bonn has not replied to the post with answers to the questions I asked, we have no way of finding out.
Same with your fish, unless we know the specifics of the situation, we'll never know.

susitna-flower

Sparkling_gourami, WELCOME TO FISHLORE!

Sorry we can't tell what happened to your gourami, but I do hope you continue to read the forum, and post.

There is a huge amount of information here. But feel free to ask questions, and don't be surprised if the first response is what are the results of your water tests.....So if you want to be prepared, get an API Master test kit and start taking readings on your tank.

I assume you have a tank...tell us about it. What fish do you keep now?

sirdarksol

Sorry, Sparkling Gourami, I didn't mean to be abrupt there. I was focusing on something else, and only a small part of my attention was going into making that post.
As Susitna said, Welcome to Fishlore!

chickadee

I will say this although I do not know if this is the case here as there was no response to the questions, but when fish seem to go crazy and swim wildly for no apparent reason there are 3 causes that I know of:

Parasites causing them irritation of some kind and this is their attempt to get away from them. (External parasites) Usually they will also be flashing and rubbing on other objects when this is the cause.

Water quality problems can cause this behavior. When a fish goes through water that it is unable to tolerate for one reason or another and it may be in only part of the tank at the first, they will swim wildly to escape from what they do not want to be around.

Stress- when a fish is stressed by other occupants in the tank or is spooked by its own reflection in the tank wall or just plain threatened by something that you may not recognize as a threat but they perceive as one, they will go into an attack mode which may include swimming wildly and if not controlled, can even lead to swimming into walls of the tank. (My betta did that)

Like I said these are just possibilities, I do not know for a fact that this is the case here but they are reasons that some fish react this way.

Rose

Rand-Fish

Strangely enough I stumbled onto this thread (thanks Google!) while trying to figure out what happened in my tank when a yellow Gourami went berserk for about 20 sec. After thrashing about and hitting a few things, it seemed to have stunned itself and settled to the bottom. It was now barely moving yet still breathing, and I assumed it would die. Miraculously, after about 1 minute it came too and was fine and is now behaving normally.

That fish has been in the tank for well over a year and gets along fine with his tankmates - a large tri-color shark, tetras, danios, barbs, a large pleco, and a Juli Cory. The tank water is fine for pH, ammonia, nitrate and temp as I do check regularly and do regular water changes and cleaning.

Anybody have any ideas on what causesthis, and does this only happen to Gouramis?

Shawnie

mine have done this also..and EVERY time they do it, low n behold, I have ammonia...so thats my answers