Gourami not eating...

[Kay]

He hasnt been eating for the past couple of days and has been hovering between a couple of plants in the back corner... This is really unusual for the gourami because he is usually swimming around with the the other one and is one of the first to notice new food in the tank. When I was putting food in the tank today I noticed black dots on his head which I havent seen before. He is mainly light blue and I'm sure I would have noticed those when I bought him. My tank is still cycling and most of the tests I've done have showed pH, Nitrate, and Nitrite pretty high. I've been changing 30% of the water out every other day.... I dont know what else I can do to get him eating again. I've put different foods in there too but he hasnt been interested.

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

has your ph been fluctuating? as long as it hasent been, it shouldnt be a problem.

 

[Kay]

the ph has been at 7.2 for the last couple of times I have checked it. I've just been waiting for the other levels to go down. Could the high Nitrate and Nitrite levels make him stop eating?

 

[homebunnyj]

yeah. How high is high?

 

[Kay]

Well the testtubes have been sitting for a while and they read:
Nitrate: 80
Nitrite: 5.0

But 5 minutes after I put the drops in they read:
Nitrate:5.0
Nitrite: 2.0

I dont know what else to do to make them go down other then to keep doing water changes... Should I be doing them every day since they are that high?

Edit: This is in my 45g tank... I used bio spira in my 10g and its cycled... well... nitrate and nitrite are at 0.

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

that could stress him, and make him not want to eat... i would try to get them down, and see if he improves.

 

[Kay]

Should I be doing more then 30% water changes every other day to get the levels down?

 

[Lotus]

If you can, keep the nitrite level under 1.0ppm. Unless the nitrate is over 40ppm, you don't need to worry about that right now, the nitrite and ammonia are more important. If your nitrites are at 2.0ppm, I would recommend a 50% water change.

High nitrites will definitely make your fish not want to eat.

Always wait the full time it says on the test before taking a reading. I usually use a kitchen timer and set it to go off when the test is done. If you wait a lot longer than the time it says, you may get a false reading, too.