help! one gourami has enlarged eyes, and a very bloated body

it seems to stay at the surface of the water a lot as well, doesn't seem interested in doing anything else what so ever. the other gourami is fine. somebody help!

also one guppy just sits at the surface of the water too, the other does'nt. all other fish seem fine. I don't get it. ive been changing the water every week. the fish eat flakes plus 'mid water and bottom feeding' fish food. I put dried blood worm in every three days. I have noticed this week the tank has become dirty with brown algae unusually quick, its absolutly everywhere, there's also an outbreak of green algae starting.

one thing I should add as well, ive never hoovered the gravel. ive never seen one in the fish shop, I have tryed. ive had the tank for around three months. will this cause problems??

 

Hello Sorry to hear about your problems. In order to help you, we first need to know your Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, and - if possible - pH readings. This will allow us to know if there's anything wrong with the water. Besides, how long have you had the tank? How large is the tank? How many fish total and what fish are in it?

Did you try reading the Disease Chart in this board? It says that diseases that include bloating / swelling of the body (and eyes) are: Corneybacteriosis, Dropsy, Myxobacteriosis, Constipation, Pop-eye, and possibly Tumors. You have to read this chart to know which one of this it may be. I cannot see your fish so it's hard for me to tell. Please read it: and try to figure which disease you think it is.

Even if you change your water regularly, but you do not poke the gravel and siphon out all the trapped fish wastes from there, the water quality may still be bad. If fish wastes are left to accumulate on and under the gravel, they will start to decompose and increase your nitrates.

How large are your water changes?

 

It does sound like your gourami might have popeye and ammonia or nitrite levels could be high.. did that link help you find a disease matching the symptoms you're observing? the substrata needs cleaned regularly, even if with a turkey baster to remove ammonia-producting leftover food and fish poop.

 

yeah, I have looked at that chart, I just wonted a second opinion to confirm what was being said as I was'nt 100%. I was certain she had pop eye, but not so certain on what could be causing the bloated body, and wondered whether both were linked in some way, not separate problems.

ill sort some readings out today, I haven't done a ph reading for about two weeks, but the ammonia levels were reading at 0 only yesterday.

the tank is quite big, it holds 29 gallons. I have:

6 neons
5 x ray tetras
2 black mollies
2 gourami
2 orange guppies
2 catfish
2 small yellow guppies

oh no, the guppy I was talking about has died.

 

what is the water temp? the tank is overstocked a bit so I think that's part of the water chemistry problems. we're sorry you lost the guppy - were the gills red or purple? are you using liquid tests (the strips are inaccurate as well as overpriced)?

 

water temp is 82. the gills looked normal, the guppy was swimming fine, eating ok but was just sitting at the top of the tank a lot.

this is my first fish death since having the tank about 3 months ago, and I don't won't anymore to suffer or die. just off to the fish shop now.

just bought some treatment for pop eye and dropsy.

it says to take out the carbon and zeolite filter, err what exactly is this in particular?

thanks

 

Carbon is the black charcoal-like stuff in your filter. It will absorb meds so you need to take it out. If you use the cartridges that have pad and carbon together you can try breaking open the cartridge and removing the carbon but I've tried that and it took me hours and I still couldn't get all the carbon out. The best thing is take out the cartridge and get a bag of filter floss or bonded filter pad and cut them to fit in your filter and use that.

It sounds like your fish may have dropsy. Are there other fish in the tank? Dropsy can be contagious and he should be treated in a separate hospital tank. Also you don't want to medicate the healthy fish.

You should order a gravel vac online if you can't find one at your store. Without it your gravel will become toxic and you will have algae problems.

 

I'm not sure. ive took the mesh type thing out it has some bits inside it. and ive taken out these white round tube like say carbon/pottery things out also. all that is left in there now is the sponge. I'm sorry if my description isn't very good.

this can't be right, seems to me like it won't be filtering anything without all this, but you don't won't the fish solution to be absorbed by it at the same time?

I'm starting to worry ive not done something right here................and now the other gourami is sat at the top of the tank gasping for air.

 

Do you have a pic of the gourami and the filter to post? what type and model is your filter? what med did you get for dropsy? do you see any scales sticking out?

 

I tryed to put a picture up but it wouldnt show. heres another try. this is the link. sorry I don't no the make of the filter

you can see the mesh type things on your left and right, and the carbon/pottery type tubes in the bowl. ive tryed also to do a picture of the gourami but it hasn't come out very good.

the med I am using is called aquarium treatment 9, antI internal bacteria. it says it treats pop eye and dropsy as well as other things. no scales sticking out.

 

I think if you take the little tube things out, that should be all you need to take out of the filter. What is the active ingredient(s) in Aquarium Treatment 9?

 

ive looked everywhere for the ingrediants, the only thing ive come across is a little section that mentions it contains formaldehyde, and methanol. and that it may produce an allergic reaction.

so those white things are what absorb the medicine then? and I take it the mesh type thing collects all the rubbish (food, fish poo etc).

it doesn't look good for the gourami, he really doesn't look healthy at all :-[ its only been a day so who knows. any idea on how long it should be before it starts to look better? I'm assuming the medicine is some sort of anti-biotic in which case it should be about a week shouldn't it? its not eaten for days either :-[

 

From what I can find out, tetracycline is the antibiotic in interpet #9 and it can take at least a few days to see changes.

Yea, the white things look just like something we saw here to add to a filter as the chemical filter.. i'd store them in a sealed container of treated tap water if possible to keep them wet (they could have lots of good bacteria on them). mesh/fiber/floss is usually the mechanical filter and collects debris, sponges are the biological filter and house good bacteria colonies.

have you tried to feed him daphina or bloodworms (frozen & thawed if possible) or minced garlic?

 

it won't eat anything! that's a big worry as well, that'll kill him soon, he hasn't eaten for days now. if I put crushed garlic in all the other fish will eat it, and if I take him out and put him in a separate holding area (tank) I'm worried he will be stressed too much.

he is still alive some how, his eyes seem to be getting a little better though, but everything else is the same.

 

most fish can go a few weeks without eating, but hopefully he can be prompted to eat soon. Another food that is a possibility when a fish won't eat is:

 

well its day 4 since adding the medicine to the water, and there's no change at all I thought his eyes were looking a little bit better, but they aren't. ive added the second dose today.

theres no way he can hold on for much longer

 

I wish we could help more. other than meds, liquid vitamins and those foods, it's pretty much pray & hope and keep them in clean conditions. Hopefully he'll start to feel the meds working soon - maybe it's taking a little longer for them to kick in with his case being stronger.

we really wish you both the best of luck.

 

I wish we could help more. other than meds, liquid vitamins and those foods, it's pretty much pray & hope and keep them in clean conditions. Hopefully he'll start to feel the meds working soon - maybe it's taking a little longer for them to kick in with his case being stronger.

we really wish you both the best of luck.

thanks.

just had some bad news. looks like ive been treating the fish while there is still carbon in the filter!!!!!! > ive had to rip open the mesh/wool type stuff to get at it. is it normal for that be the case whenever you need to add medicine to the tank?? ill probobly need to replace the mesh somehow now, I'm really, really confused about this.

 

- we just bought some of this to use in our hex tanks instead of the cartridges that they come with that have the carbon in the same piece as the bag/mesh piece. what model filter do you have?