laritheloud

I'm noticing in the dark my female's stripe colors up and darkens again, and I turn on the lights to feed her and it fades back to silver. I wonder if these 'sunset' gourami are actually wild types? That'd be exciting to me!

That was going to be my question -- if the seeded sponge was handling the bioload of a stocked tank, shouldn't it also handle the bioload of a lightly stocked new tank, provided the bacteria colony is intact? You wouldn't see any ammonia or nitrite register if the bioload is not overwhelming the seeded colony. EDIT: I would personally test it out by adding drops of ammonia to the tank and seeing what happens. I fishlessly cycled my tank with plants with pure ammonia, just don't dose past 1 or 2 ppm.

Then I would say that the medication is worth it. The setback in the biofilter is a pain in the butt, but it should bounce back relatively quickly. Mine took a little over a week and might have been taken care of sooner if I didn't keep messing with it/changing the water/adding prime.

I had a tetra with mouth rot a few months ago. I was lucky, antibiotics cleared it all up. The infection is gone, and there's no sign of fungus or irritation, but his face is scarred. It makes him unique. 😉 Good luck!

Got buddies at my usual LFS. Treating quarantine with Metronidazole. All fish are active and eating. The pair was sold to me as Sunset Honey Gouramis and there was a stark difference between the sexes. The female was all gray with a dark stripe down the middle that's faded now that she's less stressed, more similar to wild type honeys.

I would focus on your plants for now and let the tank flourish and grow for a few weeks. I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to keep your selected species in your tank, so long as you have a healthy ecosystem going on and try not to rush (I know, super hard to not want to get excited and jump ahead). I would probably wait for the tank to establish for awhile before trying the shrimp, and I would give them a good, long drip acclimation. Snails, in particular, LOVE a flourishing ecosystem. Anecdotal story: I put a mystery snail I picked up from petsmart in quarantine for a couple of weeks. We were convinced the poor guy was dying. Dropped in food every day, he had a wrinkled and swollen foot with discharge, he would move but not in front of us and not a lot. Every time I'd check on him or tried to pick him up he'd stay stubbornly suctioned, though, so we left him, until the end of quarantine when his shell was lying in the gravel and he was all closed up. Surely he's dead by NOW.... joke's on us. I tested him by putting him on a dry plate, he came out. I then filled a container with display tank water and dropped him inside to see what he would do and he immediately popped out and started hiking laps. He's now happy, healthy, and fully recovered from his irritated foot in the main tank, acting just like the rest of my snails. 🙂 Quarantine gave his foot the time to heal, but he clearly wasn't active and healthy in that tank. He much preferred the healthy ecosystem full of plants and life in my display. So after all of that, definitely just focus on growing out your plants and providing a healthy little box. If you see pests, algae, anything else that might be an eyesore but is alive, this is all good for your tank. Good luck!

Currently quarantining a honey gourami (used to be 2) in a 10 gallon tank, the gourami will go into my 29 gallon community tank when I'm sure he's healthy. I'm not setting a time limit yet except that I'm figuring it'll probably be a long quarantine stay, about 4 to 6 weeks. I initially came home with two honeys, one of them passed this morning from unknown causes; I only had him a day and he was lethargic, timid, and bottom-lying -- already dying by the time I took him home. The remaining little guy is being treated with metronidazole for now (I saw white stringy poop in the one that died before he passed, which I know could just be a sign of not eating...), and I'll move on to other meds if he starts showing symptoms.

I didn't have this experience, but Maracyn did kill off some of my good bacteria (when I was treating an active infection). Were you treating for an active Ich infection or was it prophylactic?

I treated a tank with general cure and my snails got through it, basically the same med. If you can get her to eat medicated food that'll be more effective. My honey gourami only lasted a day after it started lying on the substrate, so I'd prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Moving her might stress her out too much if she is extremely weak, mine passed in the process of trying to transfer the fish.

Does she sit down completely on the substrate and stop moving, or is she hovering? I'm so sorry, she looks very stressed and unhappy with those dark colors. 😞 Maybe try Paracleanse or General Cure? I had a bottom-sitting honey gourami that didn't make it, so I hope you are able to treat her.

It's fine! It's what quarantine is for. I'll be calling my usual LFS to see if they have any honey gourami for some buddies for my lonely one. Do you have any recommendations for other treatments to use on my remaining one? I couldn't find anything visibly wrong with the one that passed, and it seemed like swim bladder issues to me.

Update: Fish didn't make it. It didn't move from its spot last night, I went to net it out and it flailed a bit before dying during container transfer. The other little guy looks active, inquisitive, and ate happily this morning.

I'll add the salt and see how it goes.

I brought home two honey gourami from the store yesterday and set them up in my quarantine tank. Plenty of hidey-holes, temp is 78 degrees Fahrenheit, added catappa leaves, treating with PraziPro first. Water parameters are ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrates 5. One of them, my smaller honey, is perfectly inquisitive and happy, and it's also eating just fine. The other... Oof, I'm not sure. When it comes out and swims up, it seems okay. It's not breathing heavy. It kind of floated and swam at the surface underneath the catappa leaves for awhile. But it's also not eating and it's bottom-sitting for a portion of the day. By bottom-sitting, I mean lying on the substrate and looking half-dead until I disturb it. It will allow itself to lie against the substrate--maybe not fully sideways but curled against it. The colors are silvery on them both, but strangely enough, the one behaving this way is both the larger fish and the slightly brighter yellow fish. Both have a fading darker stripe down their middles. It's just that the recluse is lethargic. Everything I have searched for online regarding this behavior is telling me there might not be a good end for this little fish, which is a huge bummer. I'm not sure if there's anything I can treat because there's no visible symptoms aside from just lazy swimming and lying against the bottom. I do feel like this fish is probably not all that well, and I'm concerned it's beyond the normal shyness of a honey gourami. Thoughts? Should I be concerned about my more active buddy?

Good luck with the treatment!

I'm planning on hitting them with metronidazole. I have General Cure on hand as well as Paracleanse, i figure either one would work. And good news, the reclusive one did come out and start hanging around near the floating decorations. I think they'll do just fine! Thank you!

Question for those with experience with honey gourami! My smaller guy is lively and has been exploring the quarantine tank like crazy. It's investigating every nook and cranny, it's inquisitive, and it's very sweet. It ate a little bit this morning, but I'm trying not to feed too much. My slightly larger fish has been reclusive and shy. I know honey gourami can be shy! This one has been spending its time beneath the heater resting on the substrate. I added catappa leaves and some water sprite trimmings from the main display to make the fish comfortable. Occasionally it will come out for air, swim timidly to the middle of the tank, follow smaller guy around then retreat back to its 'spot' on the substrate. Color looks good right now, and I'm observing carefully. I'm not sure if I want to try the full med trio route due to my experience with a cycle setback in my display tank with Maracyn, but I dropped in some PraziPro today to take care of possible common parasites just in case. Is this normal behavior for a honey gourami, and will it likely feel more comfortable the longer it's with us? The display has plenty of plants and hiding spots, too.

At what age does the sex of a honey gourami become apparent? Do they have a tendency towards different temperaments between sexes? I'm mostly wondering because I just bought a pair today (in QT) and I think they're too young to sex. Both of them have a stripe and are rather pale in color, though one is noticeably a bit bigger and shyer than the other.

Beautiful alpha male diamond tetra (and smaller less dominant male)... and my new honeys in their quarantine.

Two honey gouramis!! I have no idea what the sexes are unfortunately ...

Am I understanding you correctly that you're not injecting CO2? Because if you're not, most sites will say the following: from the following site: https://aquariumplants.com/getting-your-co2-levels-right-goes-over-the-kh-ph-co2-relationship-myths-and-facts/

Four hours of drip acclimation and now they are in!!!

What does the shop recommend for your cherry shrimp? I know that shrimp tend to be sensitive, and the shop I ordered from recommended drip acclimation.

Brilliant. Somehow I did not think of this. 🤣 I will carry on just like that! THANK YOU!

Okay, so I ordered some shrimp and they look amazing! All active and hopping and alive! I am going to be drip acclimating them for a few hours. Big question: is this specimen container going to be safe to use for drip acclimation, or should I use a five gallon bucket? I know they jump but I don’t know if there’s enough water in the bag to cover the bottom of a bucket with any amount of depth.