Dying Blue Dwarf Gourami With Swollen Belly

[memder]

This happedned to me twice.

I got a blue dwarf gourami. It looked fine in the store. But on the second day I got it home, it developed a enlarged belly and always floated on the surface of the water. And very rapidly, it is getting worse. Now it is just hanging on the top of the tank and seems very difficult to move. I think it is dying. I put it in salt water.

Every thing is good with my water. I do a 25% water change every 3 days. I feed them with BettaMin, which is food for betta but I used it for all my tropical fish. All of the others seem fine (including a red dwarf gourami) except the blue dwarf gourami.

Please, let me know what is wrong and how I cam save the poor guy. THANKS!

 

[jennybugs]

What are your exact parameters...ammonia, nitrite, nitrate?

Sadly dwarf gourami are known for having been overbred and prone to diseases these days I have had several in the past and the longest lived was only 6 months. My blue dwarfs died in a month of swollen belly/ulcers.

Are the scales of its belly sticking out like a pine cone? Any ulceration visible?

I am wondering why you do a 25% water change every 3 days?

 

[Meghan]

Sadly dwarf gourami are known for having been overbred and prone to diseases these days I have had several in the past and the longest lived was only 6 months. My blue dwarfs died in a month of swollen belly/ulcers.

Are the scales of its belly sticking out like a pine cone? Any ulceration visible?

I know this is an old topic but I have the same problem with my beloved Dwarf Gourami, who I've had for about 8 months. His scales are starting to lift up on both sides (it does look like a pine cone, sort of) as of today (yesterday it was only really on his right side, where most of the bulge is), and you can see what looks like trauma from stretching. I can't tell if the skin is broken but you can see some blood or a vein through his scales. He was fine on Thursday and now what was a worrying lump on friday is a deeply concerning thing that's almost the size of a ping-pong ball.
He's still acting like his normal self though, although his swimming is becoming quite irregular.

Is there anything I can do for him? My LFS told me that it's a common problem and that there's not really anything that I can do, but I don't think there's any harm in looking for second opinions.