Gold Gourami red fin problem

[Big Birch]

Hi people Ihave had my first tank for about 6 months now and so far had a few losses but my remaining fish are thriving. For now I have 2 gold gouramis 2 angels 1 plec 1 neon 2 clown loaches and a male fighter. Recently one of my gold gouramis had a bout of white spot so I treated the tank and it has cleared up pretty well. When I checked them out today the gourami that had the white spot has developed a red fin and doesnt seem to be using it much though is still swimming well. My other gold gourami which I bought as a pair has started to chase the other and I was wondering if the red fin was a result of damage or if its a stress induced illness?. Any advice on what it is and how to sort it would be appreciated. Cheers!

[trashion]

first of all, heyo and welcome to the forums.

for starters, how big is your tank? i'm almost positive you're overstocked. the pleco, if it's a common one, will grow to two feet, i believe. have you noticed any torn fins on your "male fighter"(i assume it's a betta) i wouldn't be surprised if the gouramis or angels were harrassing it.

even without the pleco, i'd recommend at least 40 gallons for the other fish. (still a bit of a noob at this, so others may correct me)

do you test the water? if so, what are the parameters [ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, etc]

surprised that neon is still sticking around, and the gouramis or angels haven't snapped him up! on a side note, ideally neons should be in schools, preferably 6 or more.

i've heard that red streaks in the fins can be caused by ammonia poisoning. also it can be septicemia (blood poisoning) though the red would also appear on his body in that case. is he gasping at the top a lot, as in more than usual? then i would suspect ammonia. do a water change to remove excess ammonia.

[Obsidian]

Hi Big Birch
If you give us an idea of your routine (how often do you do water changes) with your tank as well as information about your tank (ie size, if it is planted, if you have added any salt, and numbers for your ammonia nitrite and nitrate) then we can help you better.

Thanks, and welcome to the forum

[Big Birch]

Hi guys. My tank is approx 30 gallon and I only have live plants as I think fakes look tacky!
I did start off with 6 neons but my tank was not mature enough so all but one died off the remaining neon actually gets on well with the angels and gouramis and they leave him alone and its the same for my fighter they just all get along really well! The gouramis are the only problems because one chases the other.
Am totaly new to this and this is my first tank so dont know much about nitrate levels ect but I have been cleaning it and changing about 1 quarter of the water every 3 weeks.
As I said all of the fish are healthy and have nice good colours and they are growing well (especially the plec) and all of the plants are clean and healthy and are also growing well. Eventually if all goes well I will be looking to buy a second tank or one huge tank if and when they start to get crowded.

[Big Birch]

Hi guys. My tank is approx 30 gallon and I only have live plants as I think fakes look tacky!
I did start off with 6 neons but my tank was not mature enough so all but one died off the remaining neon actually gets on well with the angels and gouramis and they leave him alone and its the same for my fighter they just all get along really well! The gouramis are the only problems because one chases the other.
Am totaly new to this and this is my first tank so dont know much about nitrate levels ect but I have been cleaning it and changing about 1 quarter of the water every 3 weeks.
As I said all of the fish are healthy and have nice good colours and they are growing well (especially the plec) and all of the plants are clean and healthy and are also growing well. Eventually if all goes well I will be looking to buy a second tank or one huge tank if and when they start to get crowded.

[Obsidian]

30 gallons is small for what you have so if you can look for a bigger tank as opposed to second tank of the same size then you will be helping them the most. If you do not have a test kit to give numbers for your ammonia nitrites and nitrates then it would be highly recommended that you do so. The best is to go with a liquid kit as those tend to be accurate where as the all in one test strips tend to not be accurate, making them basically worthless. Given the tank has been running for 6 months then it is likely cycled. The pleco will let off a large amount of waste so it would be good to change your water more often than every 3 weeks. You will probably want to do 20-30% changes once a week to keep your Nitrates down. The plants are probably helping with that, which is nice

Numbers should be:
Ammonia 0ppm
NitrIte 0ppm
NitrAte no higher than 30-40 ppm.

The red fin problem may be due to water quality due to some overstocking for the tank size so keep an eye on your water parameters and change water more frequently if needed. It is possible it is septicemia which you would have to do more research on than I can give you since I don't know much about it. It can also be nitrite or ammonia poisoning which gives red streaks through the fins. Improving water quality will be fine to help with that. If it is from being picked on by another fish the redness would me more likely to be around the area of injury. If this is the case then you can try introducing some salt to the aquarium which will help it heal, however I would research the effect that would have on the loaches before adding it as I do not know if loaches are salt tolerant.

The common pleco (which is most likely what you have but if you post a picture people here can tell you for sure) can get up to 2 feet long. That is longer than your tank. They need a 5 foot tank minimum and even then I, personally, would hesitate. So you are looking at 90 gallons + just for that one fish as an adult. The angels would likely be much happier in at least a 50 gallon but since you have a pair only the 30 is probably okay for now. To help with the gourami's chasing each other you have a few options. 1. Return one to the store. They are both probably male which is not good as Gourami's are not tolerant of males of their same species. 2. You can add hiding spots for the one getting chased. 3. When you get a second tank you can keep one in your 30 gallon and put the other one in the new tank

I hope this helps some. You can also do a "search" for the red fin problem under the search function here and you can read other threads about this problem that have already been answered.

[Big Birch]

Nice one that helps a lot. Looks like im asking for a bigger tank for christmas!!

[Obsidian]

Look at garage sales, on the side of the road, on Craigs list etc. I got a 100 gallon tank with a solid oak stand with basic lighting for 100 bucks from someone who was moving and simply didn't want to move it. Whole set up is in very nice condition. Only way I got that was my friend had her eyes open and saw it in a yard as we were driving past. That was the ONLY thing in the yard!