Concerned about Dwarf Gourami

downunder newbie

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My setup is detailed here:
http://fish.orbust.net/forums/index.php?sh...showtopic=31795


I am getting worried about the gourami, since he has been alone he has taken to hiding a lot, and not being very active. He doesn't appear to have any diseases, but looks a bit thin. I haven't seen any of the other fish bullying him either, and he will come out to eat, but not as excitedly as the other fish, do gourami fare better when with company? or is my tank too full to add another gourami or 2?

I know my setup is not the best :sad: but I am trying to slowly make it better.
 
ufortunately i think your tank is pretty full (kinda over crowded actually ;) )
this might be a good time to consider maybe another tank :dunno:
IME gourami, have a wide range of personalities
some are little buggers and want to chase everyone, while others are followers and want to be in a group, whether the others like it or not :lol:
what i find is that some, in more crowded tanks, feal stressed just from the lack of tranquility
the constant "busy buzzing" of the tank may make him feal uneasy
my suggestion it that you but another tank (even a little 20 gallon) for your gourami and then think of the possibility of getting him a few friends (other gourami)
just plant the tank really good so that it is nice and calm yet he has someone else in there with him
if money is an issue, just keep an eye out for second hand tanks
i got an entire, new 20gal set up (minus the heater and filter) for $20 canadian
i had an old heater and filter that i used for it and since the bioload was so small from a few gourami, it worked just fine :nod:
it would have cost me AT LEAST $69 for the cheapest set-up in stores!

sounds like yer doin a bang up job on keeping your tank clean BTH
i ALWAYS have teeny traces of nitrates and your tank is far more crowded then mine :*) :lol:
 
sounds like yer doin a bang up job on keeping your tank clean BTH
i ALWAYS have teeny traces of nitrates and your tank is far more crowded then mine

I thought the 0 reading was for nitrite, not nitrate? I can't imagine nitrate at 0, not even in my tap water! :D

Anyway, as I didn't see a nitrate reading, and you said you had lost fish initially, I was wondering if your nitrates had gotten high at some point. The reason I ask is that mine did, and I lost a previously healthy dwarf gourami. The remaining two suffered as well. The smaller one became very pale and the larger became much less vibrant (they were a lovely orange color). They are eating well and behaving fairly normally now (moved them from that tank due to red minor fin nipping), but they have not recovered their looks as yet. That was at least a month ago.

So, if your gourami suffered nitrate poisoning, and the tank is healthy now, you may have to just wait and see how he/she fares. Mine ate a ton of algae when they arrived in the new tank, and that is like superfood, so maybe it helped. It might not hurt to put a little spirulina (blue-green algae) in there! :D Good luck!
 
Thanks for the advice, I have put him into a small tank so he can have a break from the main tank. I'll have to pick up a nitrate tester, the kit that I bought had pH, ammonia, nitrite and general hardness tests.

On a sad note my female mollie died over the weekend, I spent the night at a friends place and while I was gone she got trapped under a small imitation log in the small tank I had her in to give birth :-( She seems to have gone in, and couldnt turn around, I've now taken that out now so it won't happen again :sad:
 
I'll have to pick up a nitrate tester, the kit that I bought had pH, ammonia, nitrite and general hardness tests.

Yes, do, because once you've cycled the tank it is really the nitrates that you are concerned with. As long as the bacteria is there and doing its job, ammonia and nitrite should no longer be a problem (unless you add too many fish at once). The nitrates do build up, however, and that is why we do the weekly water changes.

On a sad note my female mollie died over the weekend, I spent the night at a friends place and while I was gone she got trapped under a small imitation log in the small tank I had her in to give birth She seems to have gone in, and couldnt turn around, I've now taken that out now so it won't happen again

I'm sorry to hear that! :( I had a betta female once try to swim through the hole in a decoration and get stuck -- she died as well -- so I know how you feel. We just can't anticipate everything these fish will do. I suppose they die in the wild sometimes doing similar things, but that's small consolation when you've lost a pet.

Anyway, keep us posted on your gourami and how he fares. They seem a little sensitive to nitrates -- more than I realized (my other fish were all fine), but they are generally a hardy little fish, IME. Best of luck to you. :nod:
 

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