Lavender Gourami Flashing

[Stroy15]

Ph around 7

Gh ~200 ppm

Kh ~0-40 ppm

Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10-25

Over the course of the past month I see my lavender gourami's engage in some flashing behavior and I am not sure what the source of the problem is. From first appendices I do not think water quality as I test is shows anything wrong. Nothing that stands out. 

The other causes may be illness related or tank set up.

I have a 75 gallon tank with 5 gourami's (one snakeskin (snakie, he's the best fish and also the happiest fish in the tank who's isn't bother at all) and 4 three spot gourami's, and one pleco (who is more happy now with the newish log to his tank)) the main focus is the female lavender gourami as she is show more signs of stress (in the form of flashing behavior) and hanging out in the corner. she comes out to eat with the rest of the fish although they have been some territorial behavior around feeding times.

I think it might be stress being the lowest in the pecking order of the tank. The tank may be a little crowded and lacking hiding spots.

I might be a mild illness due to yet unknown cause that I think effected the male lavender gourami who shows normal behavior now. two weeks ago I medicated the tank with Prazi-pro to try to fix this behavior (although it was a little bit of an underdose, because I was still unsure of the cause).  

I might be related to water changes in august where the city changed something to water to cause this behavior. I has also been raining a lot recently, when I did a 25-30% water change a week ago. 

My main concern is the fish is not happy and I am trying to figure out the cause and what to do about it.

also I don't know what is happening with the amazon swords, I think they need more fertilizer.

 

 

 

[Colu]

It difficult as flashing can be caused by a number of things such as poor water quality stress parasites if you have had the fish a long time and haven't introduce anything into the tank in last couple of months you can probably rule out parasites your water parameters look good it's possible stress as you don't have a lot of plants or line of sight break's what I would do is add a floating plant like water lettuce that has long roots to provide some cover and vall or other quicker growing plant like elodea or hornwort your Amazon sword looks like it's being eaten by your pleco depending on the species if it's not getting enough vegetable matter in there diet it will eat your plants @Stroy15

Edited October 7, 2022 by Colu

[Stroy15]

On 10/6/2022 at 10:20 PM, Colu said:

It difficult as flashing can be caused by a number of things such as poor water quality stress parasites if you have had the fish a long time and haven't introduce anything into the tank in last couple of months you can probably rule out parasites your water parameters look good it's possible stress as you don't have a lot of plants or line of sight break's what I would do is add a floating plant like water lettuce that has long roots to provide some cover and vall or other quicker growing plant like elodea or hornwort your Amazon sword looks like it's being eaten by your pleco depending on the species if it's not getting enough vegetable matter in there diet it will eat your plants @Stroy15

The filter does not have carbon in it at the moment do you think that will help?

[Colu]

On 10/7/2022 at 9:49 PM, Stroy15 said:

The filter does not have carbon in it at the moment do you think that will help?

 I don't use active carbon in any of my tanks when I did use it I didn't see any different in water quality to justify continued use