One of the most common causes of a color change in fish is stress. And few factors cause as much stress in fish as poor tank conditions. That includes water with the wrong temperature, pH, and hardness.
It can also include overcrowding caused by overstocking and small tanks. If you force your gourami fish to endure poor conditions in the tank, the discoloration is just one symptom among many that you may observe. Though, the exact nature of the discoloration may vary. While some fish will become darker, others may lose their color. Another symptom of stressed gourami is when the fish chooses to lay at the bottom of the tank, as I discussed in this article.
If you suspect that your tank is overcrowded, please check this article where I explain how many gouramis should be kept together. Ammonia is not just a source of discomfort. It will harm your gouramis, killing them in the long run if you fail to take action. But before it kills them, ammonia will cause dark patches to appear all over their skin. The patches occur when the ammonia burns the skin, and then the skin heals. Ammonia is not the only toxin that concerns aquarists with gouramis.
You also have chlorine, chloramine, copper, lead, and the like to consider. But if your gourami has dark patches, ammonia is the most likely cause. Where the color of your gourami is concerned, injuries resulting from fighting or collisions with the objects in the aquarium can produce two side effects. Secondly, the injuries can scab, forming black patches over time.
It is also possible for blood to collect under the skin whenever the fish comes into contact with a point object, producing black dots and patches.
Some gouramis will turn black over time because of a genetic anomaly. This is a rare occurrence, and it is not a satisfying explanation for tanks with multiple gouramis that have started turning black. But it can happen from time to time. Suppose one or two gouramis in your aquarium are turning black, you have eliminated all the other potential causes, and the fish is still healthy despite the color change.
In that case, genetics is the most likely cause. That includes:. Start by improving the conditions in the tank. First of all, this will alleviate any stress the gouramis may have felt due to the poor conditions. He has been hanging around the surface a lot more than usual lately and i have noticed what looks like a few bubble nests I also have platys, didnt realize that one was male and two were female until recently when noticed some little fry hiding in the plants, so I've bought a breeding tank.
How do I get the gourami fry into the breeding tank?? Click to expand The amount of black will vary with the individual fish, especially with a variety like the yellow one.
In the wild coloured variety, the black area is much bigger than in my fish. With gouramis, the male will build a bubble nest in area where the flow from the filter is weakest - water flow scatters the bubbles.
When he's satisfied, he'll start courting the female by swimming vertically in front of her with his nose pointing at the surface. She'll ignore him at first so he'll chase her, he'll probably nip at her tail but that will heal quickly if the water is clean.
Eventually, she'll go under the nest with him, they'll wrap around each other and a few eggs will be released. For a couple of seconds, they'll both look like they're dead, quite alarming the first time you see it. Then one of them will come out of the stupor and start sucking up the eggs and spitting them into the bubbles.
Some males will chase the female off, some will let her help. They'll wrap over and over again till there are lots of eggs in the nest.
The male will then chase all other fish away, but if there are any other fish in the tank, they'll eat the eggs. He can't guard the bubble nest while he's chasing a fish, so the others will spy their chance. In the past I've tried removing the eggs and putting them in a fry trap. They did hatch, but the fry didn't live long. From what I read, they need careful treatment to develop and grow. So now I just leave the eggs in the nest, and they rarely last overnight.
Besides, I don't have anywhere to put that many baby fish. If you do move the eggs, they'll hatch in a day or so to a non-swimming form when they feed off the egg sac. It's about a week after laying that they become free swimming, and that's when they need to be fed.
You'd need something to feed them on then or they'll starve. Very tiny food, as the fry are very small! If you move the nest and the male into another tank, he'll keep putting the eggs back in the nest when they fall out, and he'll do the same with the non-swimming fry. But as soon as they become free swimming, he'll eat them so you must remove him at that stage. I've never tried it, but I've read that you can move the nest by sliding a piece of glass very carefully under it.
Female platies will have fry roughly every month. I know it's very tempting to try to save every single one, but you'll have to find a home for the fry - and even if a shop will take them, they won't take small ones, only once they reach the same size as the ones they are selling.
It sounds very cruel, but the best thing to do with the fry is nothing. If you have a lot of plants real or synthetic some fry will survive being eaten, and that will probably be more than you can deal with. While treating the white spot, I noticed flat patches of white come over my female Platy. They seemed to come and go, usually come back whenever I did a water change or added more fish. I treated that with Tri-Solfa also.
A few weeks later I got two female fighting fish, and bought white spot, fungus and fin rot home by accident as I didn't get the right female fighting fish I asked for, and hadn't noticed it in the tank.
The next day she had died. I had treated the tank with Tri-solfa and none of the other fish got it thankfully. About two weeks later, without adding anymore fish, I noticed my male Platy was sluggish and had the white patches on him, over his head. I thought maybe he was just stressed, as at times he would be alright, swim around and eat and then he wouldn't bother at all. One night I turned off the light and noticed his scales were risen, thinking it was TB, I got him out and had to put him to sleep as I have never been able to save any fish with it in the past and only seen it spread through the tank.
I had the high ammonia and nitrate about a week or so ago. I am wondering if the treatments are only cleaning up the tank and not the filter as the filter isn't that strong, and the same issues are coming back after a while. I'm wanting to move them to a 34 Litre tank as I think this one is also too small for the amount of fish I have in it. The white patches are still on my female Platy, though she is perfectly fine.
Please, can someone help me! KcMopar Superstar Fish Sep 30, May 11, 1, 1 0 Louisiana www. You need at least a 10 gallon tank for one Dwarf Gourami so you would need a 38 liter tank for just one. IMO you are killing your fish from just having to many in a small tank. It not a healthy environment and the bad toxins build up very fast and poison your fish to death.
Jan 1, 2, 0 0 Vancouver, British Columbia. I agree with KcMopar. You have way too many fish in your tank. Any tank that has occasional ammonia problems is uncycled, overstocked or overfed IMO. You must do daily water changes to support the fish you have right now and rehome some of them or get a larger tank ASAP. Otherwise I'm afraid your problems will continue. Let us know what you decide to do. OrangeCones Elite Fish Sep 30, Feb 27, 4, 0 Sky Diamond said:.
Sky Diamond Medium Fish Oct 1, Well, I'm currently doing water changes every second day to keep the ammonia at 0, and keep the friendly bacteria going in the tank. I cannot buy a 38 litre tank currently, but I will look at it in the near future. The only tank I have right now that is bigger, is an axolotl tank that is currently getting used.
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