Dead Gourami This Morning

pahansen

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In mid-August, I purchased two Powder Blue Dwarf Gouramis. I got them at the same time, from the same tank. One was slightly larger and would sometimes chase the smaller fish. About a month or two ago, I noticed that while the "dominant" fish had grown to about 2.25", the other fish was still only about 1.5" -- the size when I got him. I was thinking of posting about it, but I figured that fish are probably individuals, and just like people some are larger than others. And after all, they are dwarf gouramis.

Yesterday I noticed that the small gourami wasn't interested in eating, was spending a lot of time sitting near the bottom of the tank, and was getting chased a bit by the larger fish.

Last night before bed I checked him, and he was sitting in the top corner of the tank "hiding" behind the African Butterfly Fish. I made sure he was still alive, and checked him out. I couldn't tell if his tail had been nipped, or if it was just the normal split in his tail, but I decided to add extra water conditioner (for the slime coat) just in case. (This had happened once with a barb, and the water conditioner seemed to help.)

This morning I looked at the tank first thing, and he was lying on the bottom, fairly colorless, being nibbled at by the ghost shrimp. Yuck. It turned my stomach. Stupid shrimp.

I see absolutely no difference in the larger fish or any of the other fish in the tank. This is the first fish I've had die on me <sniff>, so I don't know what to think. I know that dwarf gouramis can be badly bred. Does this sound like a natural death, and/or one due to poor breeding? Like I said, he never really grew.

My concern is that there's something wrong in the tank that I'm unaware of. I just added two new fish (the African Butterfly Fish and a Weather Loach) about ten days ago. I haven't noticed any other problems, but then again this seemed to happen fairly quickly.

I changed and tested the water yesterday (before his odd behavior began), and all of my numbers were good -- 0 nitrates and nitrites. So I doubt it's that. And none of my other fish look stressed.

I'd appreciate any advice you all have.

Thanks,
Pamela
 
After my Neon Dwarfs decided it was time to make a family, and the dad was looking after the nest my female was placed in my larger tank. She did fine no problems at all. When it was time to take the male out of the fry tank he went straight into my larger tank, again no problems.

She wasn't stressed by the male she had places to hide, but a couple of weeks later she suddenly would like to hide and stay in a cave. A few days later she died, I have no explination why, it just seems to happen. :S

My male is still doing fine :blink:

Dwarfs are real sensative fish due to in breeding.

edit: saying that I have the belive that fish can suffer from heart attacks.
 
Are you shure you had 0 nitrAtes? What about ammonia?

Anyway, the 'not growing' without any other signs is a symptom of TB (fish tb) and this is something the poor breeding has resulted in with many dwarf gouramies. Fish that nibbled on it could be carriers and you should isolate and euthanise any fish that show symptoms in future.
 
Hi. Thanks for the info everyone. Yes, I'm positive the nitrates were at 0, because I tested the water just before I changed it yesterday morning/early afternoon. (This was before I noticed the gourami acting strange.) Then I did about a 20% regular water change, so I would think that this would have improved the water quality as well.

My test kit doesn't test for ammonia, just nitrates and nitrites, but since both of those numbers were 0 and since none of my other fish were/are showing signs of stress, I'm inclined to think that there's no ammonia problem. Also, I had read that fish that are affected by ammonia and nitrite levels tend to have reddened gills, gasp at the surface, and/or move their gills rapidly. I looked for those signs last night, and all were absent in this gourami. If anything, he was acting lethargic and moving his gills hardly at all.

The TB thing is interesting. I'll have to read up on it more to find out what the symptoms are so that I can recognize it in the future. (If there are any symptoms, other than stunted growth.) Because I found the fish this morning I have no idea which other fish may have fed on it. All I know is that the evil ghost shrimp were there.

My experiences are very similar to StrontiumDog's. The odd thing is that I had been keeping very close tabs on the tank in the last week, watching it a lot because of the new fish we'd added and also because we were trying to clear up some cloudy water, and he didn't show any noticeably odd behavior until yesterday evening.

Thanks for the help,
Pamela
 
Sorry to hear about your loss....ALways sucks when you loose a fish (especially the first!)...You should always have a Nitrate reading in your tank....While it should be kept under control is should never be at 0.
 

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