Newbie alert, help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[adamnc]

Hi guys,
Hope everyone is well!

ok, so I have an issue which has resulted in a family tragedy, on Saturday I added 3 cobalt blue dwarf gouramis to my aquarium, and last night one sadly passed away. He was staying at the top of the tank all day where the other two were swimming happily, and around lunch time I noticed a strange mark on his side, picture hopefully attached!

When I was at the store buying the fish, the colleague who sold them to me did something which I’d never seen before, he used a net to catch them but I must add he was quite rough, I assumed this was just down to experience and he knew what he was doing, but once he had them in the net, he picked them out by hand and put them into the jug ready for bagging. The same colleague had also given me some purple rasboras a couple of weeks earlier and didn’t do this, he just emptied the net into the jug.

my dad who is a more experienced fish keeper seems to think that the marks is a bruise from rough handling, any thoughts or help from you lovely chaps would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Nickguy5467]

for all your know that person had something on his hands that stuck to the fish. who know. i have never handled a fish like that myself. seems unprofessional to me

 

[Utar]

Welcome to fishlore.
I don't know if you can but many fish stores have some type of guarantee their fish for a certain amount of time. Maybe you can bring this one back for a refund or another one.

 

[Nickguy5467]

maybe mention how this employee handled your fish when you take him back even if they dont offer refunds or what not, id be kinda angry if i saw them handle a fish that way

 

[adamnc]

Thank you both for the fast replies! Do you think it looks like anything more sinister? I’m only worried if there is something else going on, but the other two are loving life and all other fish are absolutely fine

 

[BigManAquatics]

That mark looks a lot like the shape of the end of a thumb or finger. I don't even handle big fish i catch that rough!

 

[Leeman75]

Hi Adam, welcome to Fishlore!! I'm really sorry to hear what brought you here.

I had a situation a few months ago where I bought a Rubber Lip Pleco and the sales associate was also very rough with him and he didn't even last 24 hours. By the time I got to the body (after work), much of it was gone and I just threw it out. As I got madder about the situation being certain that it was the handling that led to the death of the fish, I went to the store and spoke with a Supervisor, explaining the details of how the fish was treated. She then replaced it for me even though I didn't have the actual fish with me.

All that to say, you should definitely go back to the store. I can't imagine a fish store not having some sort of new fish death policy.

Having said that, I'm not sure how big your tank is, but I feel like I would be potentially setting you up for another catastrophe if I didn't mention that having multiple Male Dwarf Gouramis in a single tank is something that I would highly advise against. They are extremely territorial with each other and will often end up with just the Alpha alive. Fish stores often have a tank with many of them in it, which gives the illusion that they'll be fine with each other. However, they are not typically going to work out together. Some may say that they've been able to keep the together and they were ok. Sometimes they'll work for a while, until they don't. Many others will voice the same caution that I do. I just wanted to give you that word of warning.

 

[fishnovice33]

I have personally found Gouramis to be the biggest unpredictable fish of the entire freshwater species.

They’re either the most chilled, lazy, shy, laid back fish in the tank, or they’re on a rampage to be the biggest a hole bully in the tank. They’re never in between. And I’ve had dozens, all of them the only one in the tank.

Even variations in the same Gourami type it doesn’t matter. Always been weird to me.

 

[Nickguy5467]

That mark looks a lot like the shape of the end of a thumb or finger. I don't even handle big fish i catch that rough!

for all we know that guy had red cheeto dust on his fingers

 

[adamnc]

Thank you all so much for the help and advice! I’m concerned that if more than one male don’t behave well together, why would the shop sell them together? Maybe it’s just a sales first and pets second, but really great to know for the future, and if I see signs of any issues between the two remaining gouramis I will move one into another tank which currently doesn’t have any

So I took my water to be tested as a second opinion as my results all read fine, and my local aquatics centre got the same readings as I did, so I went to the store where I purchased the gouramis from and they tested the same water sample and told me that my nitrites were too high, and if left unchecked would kill the rest of my aquarium! They assured me that the mark wasn’t down to handling and couldn’t possibly have happened, but said it was the water quality. Results they gave me were pH 7.6, KH 5, GH 5, NO2 0.4, and NO3 5.

I’m worried that there are going to be more deaths, but I followed the advice of the shop assistant and added some bacteria and reduced feeding to every other day.
Any help from you guys would be greatly appreciated!

By the way, the tests that both mine and the first shop showed that nitrites, nitrates and ammonia were all zero, and pH was 7.0.
If anyone would like to see photos of the aquarium then let me know

 

[Nickguy5467]

one reason could be the shop doesnt care and just sees $. if your nitrates are high do a large water change. clean your filters in a bucket (with your tanks water you took out). im going to assume these are nitrates left over from your cycling and maybe you forgot that part?. i dont know im not psychic

 

[FuryX]

That mark looks a lot like the shape of the end of a thumb or finger. I don't even handle big fish i catch that rough!

I am a fisherman myself and I try to treat fish with great care even though its a hook in their mouth haha.

 

[DoraCory]

By the way, the tests that both mine and the first shop showed that nitrites, nitrates and ammonia were all zero, and pH was 7.0.

0 Nitrates? That would suggest to me that your tank might not be cycled.

Or you both did the test wrong.