lisa

Hello,

I have had 3 female Colisa lalias with two males for about 1 months
now. Three days ago, I observed one pair spawning, which I thought to
be a good thing (in terms of fish health) even though I am not
interested in raising fry. The male had a huge bubblenest under a silk
lilypad that was floating in the tank.

Last night, I observed the female who spawned was hiding and not coming
out to eat as normal. This morning, she is laying on the bottom of the
tank in obvious distress. Her belly seems distended, but she has no
obvious wounds. She moves a bit, but goes right back to the bottom and
is even listing to one side now.

I've tested the tank, and all seems well. Levels are 0-0-15 for
Ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, and pH is spot-on 7.0. All other fish seem
happy and hungry. (I have a 50-G bowfront, with one juvenile
angelfish, the aforementioned 5 dwarf gouramis, and 6 small cory cats.

Is it possible for female Colisa lalias to become egg-bound? Is this
what happened, or is something else more likely? And is there anything
more that I can do for her? :-(

- Lisa

lisa

Now I am more worried. The first fish is still lying on her side in
the QT. Her breathing is labored and she has a red streak (looks like
a wound, but I don't think it is) on her abdomen's side. Her stomach
is still huge and looks like it will pop. There is a faint gray/white
trail coming out of her - I thought it was poop at first, but now I
don't think so. It's about an inch long and very hard to see - almost
translucent.

Another female dwarf gourami in the Community tank has a similar red
streak on her side, although she is swimming OK and doesn't seem
bloated. My juvenile angelfish DOES seem bloated, although he is
swimming fine and picking at everything to see if it's edible, as
usual. No visible streaks on him.

All affected fish came from the same LFS about 3 weeks ago. Should I
pull them all and put into the QT? My community tank's water
parameters seem fine (did a 30% today as part of my maintenance). The
2 older male dwarf gouramis seem normal, as do the 6 cory cats.

I've been alternating frozen blood worms with flake food, with a fast
day once/week. What is going on - and what can I do? I am worried
that it's diet-related (too many bloodworms) or else a batch of bad
fish. Argh!

Thanks,

- Lisa


anything

elaine t

Yes! Quarantine them FAST! If one dies and the other fish pick at it,
they can get sick too. It sounds like bad fish to me. I don't think
frozen bloodworms would cause this. Include all the fish you bought 3
weeks ago in the quarantine, not just the affected ones. The first fish
is probably going to die soon and you might consider euthanizing.

The swelling is because the fish are weakened from an internal infection
of some sort and are in kidney failure. The red streaks suggest that
it's bacterial. Add salt to your quarantine tank at 1 tsp/gallon to
help the swelling.

I'd also say to use some antibiotics in the tankwater, but Richard
***ton just posted a quite frightening story about a person infected
with antibiotic-resistant fish TB recently that has me somewhat spooked.
You can try acriflavine in the water, but keep the stuff off of your
skin! Antibiotics in the fish food is probably safer, and if you can
find it, soak the bloodworms or flakes in oxytetracycline and feed that
for 10 days along with the acriflavine.

--
__ Elaine T __

lisa

Thanks. They are all in the QT now. I did euthanize the first female
last night - she was far gone and in a lot of distress. My first fishy
euthanasia. :-(

I've been doing a lot of Googling and have come across many references
of Dwarf Gouramis being prone to bloat/dropsy - especially the females.
Has anyone else heard of this? (Oh, and the juvenile angelfish isn't
bloated this morning - I *think* he just had a big stomach from eating
like a pig. He has no streaks, although I won't let him back from the
QT until the rest of this issue settles out.) I've also found several
references to female Dwarf Gouramis eating a diet too rich in
bloodworms and getting dropsy. But not the males! Sometimes it's so
hard to determine what's causing stuff, even when you can tell what
they are dying of (such as this dropsy/bloating).

Goodness - you can have a perfect setup, perfect water, and still be
brought down by new fish introducing a bug. The LFS where I got these
latest fish is over an hour away from my home, and is touted as quite
THE speciality shop for freshwater fish. The original fish I got from
the local "chain" fish store 5 mintues from my home are all thriving.
(The local "chain" is three stores in neighboring cities - they are not
fish-only pet stores like the "fancy" store that I got my newest fish
from.) Figures! Just luck of the draw, perhaps.

- Lisa

elaine t

Glad to hear the angel looks better. I have seen a lot of dwarf
gouramis with dropsy, come to think of it. I don't know about feeding
bloodworms.

All fish stores get fish from all over the world, and can get burned by
a bad batch of fish. That's why it's best to QT any new fish. It's
also good to ask how long the store has had the fish and avoid buying
fish that haven't been there for a week or longer (2 weeks is better,
but desirable fish sometimes sell out).

--
__ Elaine T __