Tank Not Suitable For Gouramis?

[mnew]

I have a fairly newly set up tank ( about 3 months ) the tank is 300L and has a variety of fish all which are living very happily. However over a period of several weeks the four Dwarf Honey and the two dwarf blue gouramis have died ( from two different local suppliers) . They get listless the abdomen go concave and their colour becomes a bit darker.

The Nitrate tests at 0
Amonia 0
Nitrate 10 - 20
Ph 7.4

The tank is planted with a small CO2 unit and we use a liquid plant fertalizes about once a week or less.
We do a 20% water change ever two weeks. Our water is fairly hard ( I don't have a value for it, but just look at our kettle ! )


All the other fish ( angels, tetras, cory, loaches, knife fish all seem to be happy with no fatalities)

The tank is filtered by a large Eihiem external Eheim Therm filter.

Is there a possibility that there is something about the tank the Gouramis don't like?

Any suggestions or view would be appriciated.

 

[sylvia]

Can you be more specific about what species of tetra, knife fish and loach you have? And how many? Also, is your tank a 75 gallon? The tankmates or crowdedness could be to blame.

Having said that, those symptoms are typical of dwarf gouramies, as well as, on occasion, honeys. Particularly if they are udner stress. It's often down to internal bacterial infections and, in the worst cases, TB. They are difficult to treat without isolating and using antibiotics to which TB is resistant anyway. Most of the time they'll have lost their appetite before you begin to notice the symptoms and by then euthanasia is the best option (using clove oil). This can be very contagious so it's not all that surprising that the fish most prone to it were infected. I would suggest you avoid replacing them for at least 6 months. And even then, try a different and hardier species such as the banded or moonlight gourami.

 

[mnew]

Thanks fpr your reply.

The tank is 75 gallons. I have

(all small examples)

10 neon tetras
2 angel fish
4 corys
4 loach
3 glass catfish
4 dannios
1 small glass knife fish

The Goramis were all dwarf varieties and the symptoms were simular to that described as TB so you could be on the right track.

The fish may have been weaked by a nitrite spike that occured ( went upto 2 for a short while)

As Goramis are of the same genus(?) and anabantoids, I wondered if they were particuarly suseptable to anything in particular?

Is there a treatment for the tank for TB?

Obviously I do not plan to replace the fish until I'm happy that all is well.

 

[sylvia]

Again - what species of loach? There are thousands.

Just a warning - angels are liable to eat neons.

BTW, I don't know what a 'glass knife' is - do you mean a 'glass catfish'?

Anyway... gouramies are not all in the same genus. The genus to which dwarf gouramies belong, for example. is [i[Colisa[/i], while that of the pearl is Trichogaster. Not all are susceptible to the same diseases and, in fact, not even species in the same genus are necessarily susceptible to the same diseases - dwarfs specifically, for example, are one of the most disease-prone species. Close relatives like the honey gourami (Colisa chuna/sota) are more hardy. Generally speaking, gouramies are prone to ulcers and internal bacterial infections/dropsy but not to other common problems like ich or finrot.

TB isn't really possible to treat unfortunately. The best you can do is wait and see how your other fish do. If all's well, consider one of the larger but peaceful species such as Colisa labiosa or Colisa gasciata as replacements (keep them at a ratio of 2 females per male - a trio is ideal). These will fare better with angels but also won't be aggressive towards smaller fish.

 

[mnew]

Again - what species of loach? There are thousands.

Just a warning - angels are liable to eat neons.

BTW, I don't know what a 'glass knife' is - do you mean a 'glass catfish'?

Anyway... gouramies are not all in the same genus. The genus to which dwarf gouramies belong, for example. is [i[Colisa[/i], while that of the pearl is Trichogaster. Not all are susceptible to the same diseases and, in fact, not even species in the same genus are necessarily susceptible to the same diseases - dwarfs specifically, for example, are one of the most disease-prone species. Close relatives like the honey gourami (Colisa chuna/sota) are more hardy. Generally speaking, gouramies are prone to ulcers and internal bacterial infections/dropsy but not to other common problems like ich or finrot.

TB isn't really possible to treat unfortunately. The best you can do is wait and see how your other fish do. If all's well, consider one of the larger but peaceful species such as Colisa labiosa or Colisa gasciata as replacements (keep them at a ratio of 2 females per male - a trio is ideal). These will fare better with angels but also won't be aggressive towards smaller fish.

Thanks for the detailed reply, all seems to be fine in the tank at the moment, fingers crossed. I think I will stay clear of dwarf Gouramies for a while, shame as they are an attractive and charming fish to have in the tank.

 

[tropicalgirl2007]

Hi

I had four honey gourami's and so did my parents, everything was fine with the tanks, water etc, all the other fish were fine and yet all the gourami's died, in the same manor, just like yours!! weird!!!

 

[DarkEntity]

There has been a lot of problems with Gouramis, diseases, poor qualiy fish etc of late.