Dare Devil Pearl

So I've been opining for a Pearl Gourami for a few weeks now. We have two places that sell fish in town. One is Petco and the other is a family owned store. About a week and a half ago the family owned store had one but it was shimmying. I checked back a few days later and it had died. I noticed Petco had a healthy looking one 3 days ago but I wanted to wait to see if he was still healthy after a few days. I went today and he was still there and looked great. So I decided to get him. I was looking at other tanks and looked over to see the clerk kind of flicking him in the little plastic tank they put fish in to dump them into the plastic bag. The poor thing was turning sideways trying to right itself. The clerk said he jumped out and fell to the floor(about 5 feet) So I said I'd pass....but then he seemed to have recovered and was acting okay. I made the call to get him believing he'd have a better chance with me. Petco said I'd have an unconditional right to return if he didn't make it okay. Well I have him home now. Acclimated him for 50 minutes in his bag adding small amounts of my tank water. I added some stress coat as well. He's safe and sound in the tank now. He's off by himself but doesn't seem too stressed. Ive got the lights off and will keep them off four hours....then low light. Crossing my fingers. He's a great looking fish.

 

That's very nice poor fish, I think I know why they jumped out of the petsmart tank.

Hope all goes well for him/her

 

Thank you. This morning I'm seeing a small white spot( not ich small) on his nose on the right side of it. He's acting okay. Maybe that where he landed. I hope it's nothing.

 

Mine jumped out of my bucket during acclimmation at home. Also landed on floor . They were very skittish at first but eventually settled in. Have 4 for 2 years now. They are moody and get shy from time to time. Be sure to have lots of hiding places while they are in your quarantine tank.... You are going to quarantine them first right ???

 

Unfortunately I don't have a quarantine set up. My tank is fairly well planted and there's driftwood he goes behind occasionally. I went to work at 2 and picked up some melaflix that says it helps with wounds. I'm going to dose the tank when I get home. Crossing my fingers no one gets sick

 

I wouldn't bother with melafix. It's bad for bettas because it hurts their labyrinth organ, gourami have one too, so I would skip it. Maybe get StressGuard from Seachem, but I wouldn't even worry about it. Get some vitamins (Boyd's Vitachem) and feed them good food and it will be ok.

 

Methylene blue is worth having on hand. Also very usefull as a bath or dip when getting new fish or dealing with wounds.

 

Thanks for the information everyone. I almost made a mistake. Sheesh you'd think they'd give you a warning on the bottle.

 

One more question if I may. My wife picked up some "Jungle Fungus Clear". They are fizzie tabs. The active ingredient are "nitrofurizone" and "potassium dichromate." .I've done a little research on line and haven't found any bad reviews but have seen some positive ones. Do you know if these ingredients dangerous for gouramis?

 

I have used Furan-2 in the past, also has nitrofurizone and something else . It has helped , assuming you have a bacterial infection.

My fish have lost scales or scratched themselves bumping into ornaments, didn't get fungus, they we're fine. If you have good water parameters , have a low stress environment and give good food they should be ok. Now, your fish are from Petco... So.... No promises there. Petco near me always has ich, fin rot, dead fish, who knows what else in their tanks. If you want to proactively treat the tank, then that's your choice . These antibacterial medications will likely affect the beneficial bacteria in your tank, causing a minicycle, (i.e ammonia to rise), which will definitely make your fish stressed and sick. So... Do more research before putting chemicals into your tank. And really do consider getting a 5 gallon or 10 gallon "quarantine" or "hospital" tank if you can.

 

I'll do an amonia test when I get home. It's been 0 for weeks now. Tank is new but has been fully cycled for a while. Most of my stock is from Petco. I started with giant 7 giant danios. I've added a Rubbernose Pleco 3 Platys, 7 venuzualan Cory's and now this pearl Gourami. No casualties yet, knock on wood. Thanks again.....oh yeah it's a 55 gallon tank

 

Just thought of another question. If not now but in the future if I'm adding antibacterial meds, would Stability prevent a mini cycle? Would it affect the medicine?