Curved Gourami

twintanks

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I ought to be settling down now with my new fish after 3 months, and in fact they're all doing very nicely in general. I am however keeping an eye on my blue dwarf gourami's change in behaviour. I've been reading around elsewhere before posting here, to try and get an idea of whether he is actually sick or has a deformity.
I first noticed a change several weeks back; he used to be the dominant fish out of the two gouramis that I have. But now, the powder-blue male is the boss and the striped male is the under-dog. I can only put this down to the idea that Mr Stripey is in fact exhibiting signs of unwellness and the other one is sensing it.
The gourami's shape seems to have altered, it's difficult to describe, but he seems to have a wave in his posture, rather like a very open "s" shape...if you look at him head-on, his right side curves out a bit and the left side is slightly concave; then, around the midway point, the left side curves out slightly and the right side is relatively flat. If comparing to the power-blue gourami, the latter looks pretty symmetrical and flat on both sides.
The striped gourami is hiding out in the plants at the rear of the tank; he is eating tetra flake and does pick food at the substrate. His resting position is peculiar, sometimes appearing normal and then head-up at around sixty degrees with his feelers held out in front (rather like a dalek). Doesnt seem unbalanced in the act of swimming.
All other fish are fine; water is Ammonia 0  nitrite 0 nitrate 5-10. I read about gourami virus but am not sure of all the symptoms, so am posting this not as an emergency as such, but for any thoughts.
 
 
twintanks said:
 I've been reading around elsewhere before posting here, to try and get an idea of whether he is actually sick or has a deformity.
 
Sounds like a deformity caused by illness. It's been well established that morphological deformities in fish result from stress, disease, poor water quality, or contaminated water.
 
The bend can also be caused by digestion problems rather than a spinal issue. Sometimes when a fish is constipated to the point of distress it will show outward symptoms. 
 
Any of these things could be the cause. Generally genetic malformations show up earlier though I suppose (but don't have evidence) that some could show up at sexual maturity due to hormonal changes. 
 
Thanks for that; I am  happy with the fish's "deposits", so something a little more complex like genetics seems possible. One of those things that just appears unexpectedly. I am grateful that he is eating and at least getting around. But will be watchful now.
 
As long as the fish is eating it can live a long time even with the malformity if it's genetic. If it is disease related it will generally progress. 
Obviously if it's a water issue you can fix that and if it is disease there are treatments like melafix and others you can use. 
If it is genetic obviously it's just got to run its course. 
 

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