Gourami Floating On His Side! Help!

My male gourami is floating on his side on top, when I touch him he zooms off? Is he going to die??

 

Most likely, as it is rare to be able to treat them when they have lost complete control of their swim bladder. You can put him in an epsom salt/methylene blue bath and hope that it allows him enough buoyancy to sit upright for you to feed him Kanamycin.

 

What is swim bladder and what causes it?

 

The swim bladder is what the fish uses to maintain it's high in the water, increasing it's buoyancy raises him in the water, while decreasing allows him to go to the bottom. Bacterial infections, kidney failure, and severe constipation causes him to loose control of the swim bladder frequently making it expand or in your case increase the buoyancy so that he may not maintain upright position. In order to treat internal bacterial infection, he needs to be treated with an antibiotic, of which Kanamycin( sold as Kanaplex) is one of the best. You can treat the water but soaking it in the food and feeding works much better and faster. Epsom salt reduces swelling by decreasing retention of fluid which can ease the symptoms, where methylene blue helps with healing through increasing oxidation of cells and is a minor bactericide.

 

Never mind, looked it up never thought keeping fish was so difficult...

Unfortunately I will have to lose him since I don't have anything to help but I did move him to another container with clean water since I didn't know if it was contagious or not

 

Not really contagious but it is a good to move it out. These infections tend to happen when there is a lot of decomposing organic material in the tank, do you know what the water parameters?

 

Nitrate is a little high but nitrit is perfect...Is there a human way of letting my fish go? Hate to see him suffering

New water he is in the levels are perfect even though I know it's too late

I'm currently cycling my 10 gallon tank and looking around for fish that could into it when it's ready. I've posted some questions earlier and have heard people say serpae tetras can't go in a 10 gallon then I go on to that beginner e book and it says 10 gallon is ok along with other fish websites. I'm only looking to have one species of fish in there with a couple ghost shrimp. Another fish with the same story is the harlequin rasbora. I just want enough for a small school maybe 6-8 but the fish stores nearby are VERY limited in the true 10 gallon fish department. Basically just bettas and guppies. If I could put either of those fish in the tank it would great. Just looking for opinions and possibly an explanation of why there are so many conflicting opinions with stocking. Thanks

Here's a pic of my tank



Also here's some other fish that might work but would also like an opinion on (same story as before):
Head and Tail light tetra
Glowlight tetra

What do you mean by soaking it in the food? And how much Empson salt do I use?

The swim bladder is what the fish uses to maintain it's high in the water, increasing it's buoyancy raises him in the water, while decreasing allows him to go to the bottom. Bacterial infections, kidney failure, and severe constipation causes him to loose control of the swim bladder frequently making it expand or in your case increase the buoyancy so that he may not maintain upright position. In order to treat internal bacterial infection, he needs to be treated with an antibiotic, of which Kanamycin( sold as Kanaplex) is one of the best. You can treat the water but soaking it in the food and feeding works much better and faster. Epsom salt reduces swelling by decreasing retention of fluid which can ease the symptoms, where methylene blue helps with healing through increasing oxidation of cells and is a minor bactericide.

What do you mean by soaking it in the food? And how much Empson salt do I use?

What do you mean by soaking it in the food? And how much Empson salt do I use?

It also has to be pure Empson salt too correct?

 

Dissolving the medicine with small amounts of water or garlic juice over top of freeze dried foods will cause it to be absorbed into the food.
Yes you would want pure epsom salts, without perfumes or additives, generally easy to find in grocery or drug stores.