Blue Gourami is curved and floating on top and other fish have dark spots

Hi, I have a 36 gallon tank with 1 blue gourami, 1 sunset dwarf gourami, 3 minnows, and an Chinese algae eater. Over the past 3 months, I lost one minnow that had what looked like white cotton, two other fish to swollen bellies, and one dwarf gourami that I think had wasting disease. I've done frequent water changes and originally treated the tank with primafix for fungis. After no success, I used API cure for parasites. Later, I used Melafix.

Right now my concern is the Blue gourami, she's been hanging in there for the past month like trooper. I can't tell if she can't see the food or just can't manage to move her body to it. The past two days it's been hard for her to move below the surface. I saw her trying hard this morning, but then floating up. I'd tried hand feeding her a shelled pea today. Normally, I give them Emerald entree once a day. And the dwarf gourami has dark spots down the intestinal track as well as the minnows.

The substrate is pretty dirty underneath, and I don't like to stir it up or vacuum it too much to disturb the good bacteria. Recently, I had to clean inside filter because there was this gross stringy stuff caught in it (I think it was bad bacteria). Right now there is salt in the water, and I'm on day 3 of using Prazi-pro. It's been a journey to diagnose all the symptoms and narrow it down to one thing. All the medications that I've used have been over period of 3 months and not all at once. Any kind advice you can give to help me shed some light on things that I can do to help for Bubbina and the others, I greatly appreciate it. Thank you!!!

 

Can you tell us a few more details? Water temp, nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, what foods do you use?

The minnows you lost to cotton stuff doesn’t sound good at all. A droopy tail like the gourami seems to have may point to a swim bladder issue. I’m not seeing the black spots but that could be any number of things.

I want to brush up on one thing, does the CAE act aggression with the other fish. CAE can cause problems as they get older, they’ll try and suck on larger fish supposedly to eat their slime coat. They are often regarded as a fish not meant for aquariums because of their aggressive nature. I had one who harassed my paradise gourami so he had to go.

 

Hi, I have a 36 gallon tank with 1 blue gourami, 1 sunset dwarf gourami, 3 minnows, and an Chinese algae eater. Over the past 3 months, I lost one minnow that had what looked like white cotton, two other fish to swollen bellies, and one dwarf gourami that I think had wasting disease. I've done frequent water changes and originally treated the tank with primafix for fungis. After no success, I used API cure for parasites. Later, I used Melafix.

Right now my concern is the Blue gourami, she's been hanging in there for the past month like trooper. I can't tell if she can't see the food or just can't manage to move her body to it. The past two days it's been hard for her to move below the surface. I saw her trying hard this morning, but then floating up. I'd tried hand feeding her a shelled pea today. Normally, I give them Emerald entree once a day. And the dwarf gourami has dark spots down the intestinal track as well as the minnows.

The substrate is pretty dirty underneath, and I don't like to stir it up or vacuum it too much to disturb the good bacteria. Recently, I had to clean inside filter because there was this gross stringy stuff caught in it (I think it was bad bacteria). Right now there is salt in the water, and I'm on day 3 of using Prazi-pro. It's been a journey to diagnose all the symptoms and narrow it down to one thing. All the medications that I've used have been over period of 3 months and not all at once. Any kind advice you can give to help me shed some light on things that I can do to help for Bubbina and the others, I greatly appreciate it. Thank you!!!

Your "Dwarf Gourami" is a Gold Honey Gourami, the black line down the lateral line is completely normal

 

Can you tell us a few more details? Water temp, nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, what foods do you use?

The minnows you lost to cotton stuff doesn’t sound good at all. A droopy tail like the gourami seems to have may point to a swim bladder issue. I’m not seeing the black spots but that could be any number of things.

I want to brush up on one thing, does the CAE act aggression with the other fish. CAE can cause problems as they get older, they’ll try and suck on larger fish supposedly to eat their slime coat. They are often regarded as a fish not meant for aquariums because of their aggressive nature. I had one who harassed my paradise gourami so he had to go.

Thank you, Demeter! I'll have to get back to you with my levels. I feed them frozen Emerald entree. I know the temp is at 76 degrees F. I want to increase the temp little by little to help with digestion, but I have a cheap thermometer... it's turned all the way up and need to get a new, more reliable one.

Pinky, my CAE, I've heard that it might be best to get rid of him. He does try to chase the Gold Honey Gourami and the Blue Gourami on occasion... but, it doesn't seem to be too frequent. I'll keep my eye on him though.

So, it seemed like the swim bladder got better with the melafix. Bubbina was able to swim below the surface and now it got worse the past two days. I'm not sure what else to do other than more frequent water changes and try another round of melafix in 3-4 days.

Thank you JinjerJOSH! When I looked up the minnows, I noticed that they have the dark spots/marks, too, in the picture. So, it's good to know that these marks are normal for both and not black spot disease. Whew!!!

 

Thank you, Demeter! I'll have to get back to you with my levels. I feed them frozen Emerald entree. I know the temp is at 76 degrees F. I want to increase the temp little by little to help with digestion, but I have a cheap thermometer... it's turned all the way up and need to get a new, more reliable one.

Pinky, my CAE, I've heard that it might be best to get rid of him. He does try to chase the Gold Honey Gourami and the Blue Gourami on occasion... but, it doesn't seem to be too frequent. I'll keep my eye on him though.

So, it seemed like the swim bladder got better with the melafix. Bubbina was able to swim below the surface and now it got worse the past two days. I'm not sure what else to do other than more frequent water changes and try another round of melafix in 3-4 days.

Thank you JinjerJOSH! When I looked up the minnows, I noticed that they have the dark spots/marks, too, in the picture. So, it's good to know that these marks are normal for both and not black spot disease. Whew!!!

More frequent water changes won't hurt and may help unless you are medicating.

Might be a good idea to remove the CAE, they need more protein as they mature and often go after other fish and their slimecoats. This could be a factor, stress often leads to illness.

Is that all you feed them? It seems like a good mix but potentially varying the diet a bit might help?

Glad to relieve some worry It's hard enough dealing with one issue let alone a slew of them.