having problems with my dwarf gouarmi

HI all, ive had my dwarf gouarmI for just over a year now, but I seem to having a few problems with him recently. He started showing different behaviour about a month ago now, it started with him just resting in one place next to the heater in a facing up position with his tail pointing down, and now it has escalated to the pioint where if he is sationary and not swimming he will be at the surface practically on his side. he's loosing coluration to. He does swim about the tak every so often and when he does swim he does swim straight but somethimes looses balence and goes to the side. I'm really uinsure what is wrong with him, water paremeters are all fine, all other fish are fine, hes not constipated as he has bowel movment, hes eating ok....anyone have any ideas what could cause these symptoms? thanks in advance
Pearl

 

seems like old age to me. you probably don't know how old he was when you got him. at this point, I wouldn't think it would be worth medicating him or anything....sounds like he's at the end. =[ i'm sorry

 

JerI is likely right.

You can try improving his diet to a high quality fish food and some blood worms. Also, of course, changing the water more frequently.

Lethargic behavior and swimming problems could be caused by the following problems:
Nitrite/Nitrate poisoning
Swim Bladder disease

 

If you bought him from a LFS about a year ago I would take a guess that he is only about a year and a half old. I am guessing this because most pet stores sell old juvenile to young adult fish. DG should live to be 3 to 4 years old so I wouldn’t think age is a major factor here so I would personally take a look at “Has anything else changed in the tank that could lead to stress?”

Also like Zenial stated improving his diet to frozen bloodworms or frozen brine shrimp might help get him back on his feet so to say. Most of the time when any fish starts loosing color it is due to diet problems or stress.

I read in your profile that you have a 101 liter tank but it is not clear how many fish you have in it or what they are. The 101 liters is ok if it is stocked correctly with non-aggressive fish and has some good hiding places for the DG. DG can be quite shy and if they are not allowed to hid now and then they can get quite stressed over time. I would personally try putting him in a QT for a while and feed some good frozen foods to see if you could bring his health up.

 

Nearly the same thing happened with my dg. I had him for almost two years, then he started behaving the way you just described. He lived like that for a couple of months. I upped my water changes and tried to feed him a little better, but he was just on his way out. I always figured that it was old age complications of some sort. He was my first fish. We don't know how old the fish are and under what conditions they were kept when we get them from a pet store.

 

The problem I seem to be having with him now is that he seems to try and swim upwards towards the surface but 'slides' back down tail downwards. It's like his tail is weighted if that makes sense. JUs wish I knew what the problem is so I can least try to rectify it

 

Good morning,

I have moved your thread from Freshwater Beginners to More Freshwater Aquarium Topics/Freshwater Fish Disease section of the forum. You can always locate your threads by clicking on My Threads in the blue bar close to the top of the screen.

Thanks and best wishes for your fish!

Ken