# Dark spots on my pearl gourami's head



## skitty (Dec 30, 2020)

I have had this fish for 13 days and noticed this just before I was going to transfer her our of my quarantine tank.

My 10 gallon quarantine tank is cycled, runs 2 sponge filters, contained 2 gouramis and 40 guppy fry while I have had these fish. I changed 25% water every 2-3 days with usually both aged+treated water, but did a few water changes with treated-only. PH swings a bit with water changes, though I have been careful not to make those swings more than about 0.4 (and usually less), _except_ when I first introduced the fish from the pet store, where the bag water was 6.4 and tank was around 7.4, after which I tried to bring down the PH of the tank with buffers, which was a mistake because the acid buffer would drop PH and soon the KH would resist the drop and it would swing back up. Nevertheless, in spite of this blunder the gouramis seemed fine for about 12 days until the female started hiding under the sponge filter and showed the dark spots on her head. Male gourami was harassing her a bit (with "kisses", lol), so perhaps its bruising?

Recent parameters:
temp 25
PH 7.2
nitrites and ammonia 0ppm*
nitrates 10-20ppm (though now changed down to < 10ppm).

* my ammonia test is reading a bit greener than the "0" on the chart, so I tested against known-good water from the aging barrel and the results were exactly the same. This and the history of the tank makes me pretty confident that it's 0ppm, in spite of the added bioload of the gouramis.

The pearl gouramis are about 2.5 inches long at the moment, and the male has been removed to the main tank.

So what are the dark spots on her head and why is she acting so skulky?


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## mollyb (May 18, 2010)

I wouldn't be surprised if the male wasn't harassing her to spawn, and she is not ready, separating the male may be indicated, leave the female where she is for a couple weeks, feed her heavily, the reunite, voila eggs...


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