gouramis died

[AngieKwdr]

I don't know what is wrong can someone help? I have a 55 galon tank with 9 neons, 5 corys, 3 alge eaters, one molly, 2 platties, and now only one terquise grourami, and one blue flame gourami, oh and 3 black tetra. my tank has been cycled for two months---Amonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 25

I had two moonlight a blue flame and a terquise grourami die within 48 hours of each other, they were all eating fine. Before they died they were all hanging out at the top of the tank. then they stopped swimming and stated falling to the bottom they acted like it was a great effort to get back to the top and then died what is wrong? can anyone help? all the other fish seem fine

 

[mikep]

I've just lost 2 dwarfs and a kissing gourami within 3 days. No symptoms or anything I could see, although the male dwarf dulled in colour and had cloudy eyes just before he died. A mystery!

 

[pseud]

I had a female dwarf die for no apparant reason. I seem to hear about this alot. Don't think I'll keep gouramis again.

 

[Ferris]

The Nitrate is a little high so i would do a water change. Other than that it sounds like swim bladder disease but i've only ever heard of isolated cases of this so it is more likely to be water conditions due to the number of fish affected and the timescales involved. Have you changed brand of de-chlorinator or similar recently?

 

[AngieKwdr]

I was wrong about the nitrate it is 5.0 not 25 as I last stated.sorry for the confusion. I do a 10 to 15 gallon water change once a week. I am still at a loss as to what could have gone wrong.

 

[AngieKwdr]

I do not have chlorine in my water so the only time I use a conditioner is when I add new fish. No new additions. I don't dare until I know what happen to my gouramis.

 

[sylvia]

Had you only recently added these fish? It sounds like they were already sick. However, the fact that you say moonlights also died worries me. You see the dwarfs are very susceptible to all sorts of infections - especialy internal bacterial problems - but moonlights are actualy quite hardy. Also, you mentioned they were hanging out at the top. Now if they were new additions but your water parameters were and are still fine, the problem might have been pH shock. Do you know the pH and parameters of your LFS' tanks? If there is a big difference between them and your own, this might have been the problem. Also, any sudden changes in temperature recently? How did you acclimate the fish to your tank when you got them? Also, I wouldn't put so many gouramies in one tank in future. Moonlights, though they aren't aggressive, do get to 7" and male dwarfs are territorial so you don't want to voer-crowd them (especialy if you haven't got a planted tank and one that has plenty of hiding places near the surface. By black tetras, I also assume you eman skirts/widows. these fish are known to nip so gouramies with long ventrals don't appreciate them as tankmates. You also didn't specify what kind of 'algae eaters' you have. If they are chinese/sucking loaches/golden, they are terrible community fish and will in time grow to 10" and be very aggressive. They often target flat-bodied fish like gouramies and suck their slime coats and eyes. They also don't do well with each other, being solitary and territorial and getting worse and worse as they mature. When they hit 5-6", they also gradualy stop eating algae.

 

[Xenonorph]

my dwarf gouramy died today, I think it looked like some kind of food poisoning. he became lazy during yesterday, spent all today at the surface and died this evening. Water conditions are perfect. pH 6.8. 55 gallons with rainwater, salt and good maintenance.

I think diet is the most important thing apparently they require a lot of fresh greens. Although mine had all he wanted. He probably had too much meaty crappy flakes/granules -overfeeding . I don't know why this fish is recommended because everywhere people say they die.
I am having trouble feeding all my fish due to their different tastes and eating rates.
this morning I thought he was okay again, because he breathed a couple of murky sticky looking bubbles on the surface, so I figured perhaps he was behaving weird because he was going to make a nest.


Also I did see him scratching his gill/tummy area three times about three days ago.
I actually dissected him but couldn't see anything really, couldn't even find of the labyrinth breathing organ.
bought him about 10 days ago, and he has been quite feisty until yesterday , biting off snail tentacles, scales from his girlfriend, and a male and female plati and having a whale of the time. what a crazy individual fish, I'm sure he would have chilled out with time.
I'm going to see if his girlfriend makes it past a months time before trying another.

Lovely fish, pass it on that they are the hardest gouramy to keep.