Dwarf Gourami has curved body

[postshawn]

So I have a Dwarf Gourami with a curved body. I got a 20g tank and set it up. Waited a week, then added fish. I added the whole gang slowly but the 2 dwarf gouramis were among the first batch. It's been about 2 months now that I've had this setup. The two dwarf gouramis kind of would pick on each other. I think they are both males. Well the non curved one picked on the curved one more then the other way around. So anyway they were fine for about 2-3 weeks. Then I noticed the curved one had it's feelers (or whatever they are called) broke. Both at the same time I noticed they look like the were cut in half. Maybe the other one bit them or whatever I don't know. But then for the next week or so that fish also became a bit skittish and just kind of doing random things. And after about a week it looks curved. It's whole body now just stays curved to one side. Not a 90 degree turn but a gradual curve to the whole body. Almost like it's got a fish version of multiple sclerosis. It seemed to act slower and sometimes stuggel to move for the first couple weeks of being curved. Now for these last couple weeks it's mostly fine and actually gets food faster then some of the other fish. It has a hard time here and there but over all seems to take care of it self just fine. Yesterday though I noticed it do a complete freak out, like a spasm or seizure. For just a couple seconds it swam up to the top then back down kind of upside down and then darted around a couple plants and then stopped and continued on it's usual way. Haven't seen that craziness from it before or since.

Some more info:

-20g tank.

- Aqueon 20 filter. Cleaned about a month ago. Getting ready to do it again.

- complete stock of this tank:
2 Dwarf Gouramis.
5 Harlequin Rasboras.
2 Mixed Mollies.
3 Black Kuhli Loaches.
2 Panda Cory Cats.
2 Albino Cory Cats.

- Started with fake plants. About 4 weeks ago added a couple life plants that my LFS would do fine with these fish and tank conditions. Added the live plants after the fish got the curved body.

- Tank parameters, fish store said was ok about a month ago. Currently the tank is around 78 degrees F and has always been between 76-80 using a small heater. PH is about 6.8, I'm trying to get it back to be 7.0 or higher. Where should it be for these fish?

- I give it the usual pet store tropical fish food flakes. I give them granules once in a while. Mostly because they sink and the Corys and Loaches eat them.

- The curved one and all the rest have no other problem. No white stuff on fish, no discolorations, no other fish exhibit crazy moving or breathing, and the two dwarf gouramis actually seem to fight less now. All the diseases have related colorings or damage to fins or holes or etc and this one has non of that.



So is there something wrong with my fish? Is it just paralyzed? I don't think I need to euthanize him or anything. Other then being curved and random spasms he is doing fine eating and holding his own now.


The curved one is the one on the left. This photo was taken right before this started. The bully is on the right.

 

[postshawn]

anyone?

 

[purplecandle]

for your tank parameters, we need to know the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels. Not just the PH. The PH often a little to do with why a fish is sick. It's like saying~

you- "Something is wrong with my car, can you fix it?"
Mechanic- "What seems to be wrong, can you tell me what it is doing?"
you- "It is a red car, does that help?"

 

[postshawn]

I'll try to get the other parameters this weekend. Thanks.

 

[postshawn]

for your tank parameters, we need to know the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels. Not just the PH. The PH often a little to do with why a fish is sick.

So the PH is actually at 7.2. The ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all close or at 0. I had my LFS do the test and the guy said they were basically perfect levels. I told him about the curved fish and he said with the good levels that there is nothing he knows of anything to do other then to just let the fish live the best it can.

So actually after almost a month of the fish being curved or bent it appeared to actually straighten out over the weekend and now it looks normal. It's feelers are back to full length. I thought it was ok and then I want to watch the fish for a few minutes and after a couple minutes of watching the formally curved fish freaked out and started moving erratically. It swam, if you could call it that, up to the top, then kind of swamp back and forth a few inches each way to the bottom again and then went up about half way and stayed there for a good minute. It looked like a seizure. After the minute it just started swimming around like normal. That was this morning and I hadn't seen it do that again before I left for work. I gave it some food (Aqueon tropical fish flakes) right before I left and it ate just fine.

So I don't know if there is anything I can really do, especially with the water parameters where they should be at. I'm just going to let the fish live it's life however it can and provide it a good home. I don't think re-homing it or quarantining it will really do anything different for it. Just still wondering if anyone else has had similar experience either with a curved or bent fish for a while or the seizure movements with no other indications of sickness. Still looks healthy as can be from the outside, no marks, white stuff, broken fins or gills or any of that.

Thanks.