Weird Dwarf Gourami

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luwe80

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I'm fairly new to the hobby but I read and research a lot. I have 20gal, cycled. No ammonia, no nitrite, less than 5 mg/L nitrate. I change 20% water every week or even more often, I like it crystal clear. My water is pretty soft, around 6. KH is very low (I added sea shells to filter a week ago to fix this). My GH is a bit low, about 30 mg/L. I only have one 2-inch feeder goldfish in there that I used for cycling.

I bought 2 dwarf gouramis. One flame-kissed female (rounded top fin), and one blue male (pointy top fin). So I very slowly acclimated both of them to the water as I realize my water is probably softer than the store's. I noticed that the female chases the slightly bigger male sometimes. I thought that was odd. I noticed that the male doesn't move too much. He pretty much just stays either in a corner on the bottom, or the top. He doesn't swim around and doesn't eat. If the female chases him, he swims just fine. He looks healthy, all fins are nice and spread out and pointy. He doesn't seem to have any white or green spots, nothing. He looks very healthy. But he doesn't eat and doesn't move. At first I thought it was KH or GH, like I said my water is very soft but the female seems fine with it, although she is very scared of me :) I don't know what the problem could be. Could anyone advise? I can provide pictures, but the fish looks just fine. For now I put the male into a breeding box in the tank as I don't have a spare one and he doesn't swim around anyway. I can't figure it out. From my searches it could be parasites or some kind of infection but I'm new and don't really know. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

ps. I know goldfish and tropical fish don't match. The goldfish I used to cycle was supposed to be fed to my girlfriend's snake but I stole it and now don't have the heart to kill it. He survived the snake and went through the cycle so his name is Lucky and he looks great and he seems very happy. :)
 
Female dwarf gouramis are silver and males have colour, either red or blue or red & blue striped. If your female has colour then it is a male and is bullying the other male.
If you post a pic of the fish we can make sure you have a male & female.

If both fish are nervous and panic when you go near the tank then something is wrong with the water. It could be the pH is too low (but shouldn't be an issue for gourami with a PH of 6). Have you got a picture or something across the back of the tank? If not then it is a good idea to put something across the back to help the fish feel more secure. Having lots of plants in the tank will also help them feel more comfortable and panic less.

External skin parasites will make fish rub on objects in the tank.
 
Thanks for the response.

I read about the top fin but forgot about the color. You're right they're both males. The healthy gourami still swims away when I get close but it doesn't panic and it seems to not get scared as much as before. I'm hoping he's just really shy. I do not have anything across the back of the tank, didn't know about that. Thanks for the tip. This is what the tank looks like:

[URL="http://img239.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tank01cv8.jpg"]http://img239.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tank01cv8.jpg[/URL]

Should be enough for them to feel secure. The sick gourami jumped out of the breeder box into the tank this morning and I was hopefull he was getting better. Now I see he isn't. He's lying on the bottom of the tank, breathing heavily. His eyes are popping out, a lot. I don't know what the problem with him is. I've been doing a lot of googling and it sounds like internal parasite or bacterial infection. He wasn't trying to rub or scrape himself so I don't think it's skin parasites. Other than that he looks ok but I don't think he'll make it. I guessI should start thinking about getting clove oil. :(

Healthy, male I presume one: http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/6537/dgm01qm3.jpg
 
even tho you have lots of plants in the tank there aren't any that go up to the surface. Gouramis are surface dwelling fish and don't naturally occur in the bottom half of the tank. If you had some floating plants like water sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides) or some plants that grow taller (Ambulia or Narrow Vallis) then it might help a bit. However, if the fish has pop-eye (eyes sticking out) then it has a problem, most likely a bacterial infection. There's a possibility the gourami had it when you bought it and the stress of being caught and moved to another tank has made it worse.
Pop-eye needs to be treated with an appropriate anti-bacterial medication. But treatment isn't always successful.
 

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