Bloated body, HELP!

[supergirltnt]

Hopefully this solution is obvious, but I'm stumped. I have a 30 gal. tank with 5 gouramis who have been in great health since February. All of a sudden the smallest gourami in the tank stopped eating, stays at the top of the water, and is progressively swelling x3days, then died yesterday. Today I was checking everybody out and now a larger gourami is staying at the top of the water and not eating, hasn't started to swell. All water parameters are safe 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates. The only thing that was slightly different in our routine is that I fed them some live blackworms approx. 10 days ago. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks

 

[Shaunna]

Maybe Dropsy. I read that Gouramis are sometimes prone to this disease. Did they look like they are pregnant, that is usually the common misdiagnosis apparently. I would look up dropsy and look at the pics and see if your fish look like that. Are the scales sticking out?

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/hddropsy.htm
http://www.fishjunkies.com/Diseases/dropsy.php

 

[caylynn]

I recently went through a parasite infestation of camellanus worms. It also takes a couple days to kill fish, they float, not swim, bloat, and die. I lost quite a few fish but finally found something that worked well, Gel-Tek. Its for any internal parasites. Maybe check around your tank and see if you see any worms? Small, brownish? While researching it I found out that these worms are most commonly introduced into the tank by feeding live foods (e.g. worms) Good luck