Anabantid problems.

[Beeker]

I seem to have a problem with Anabantids. I had 4 Peaceful Bettas which were doing quite well, but were awfully timid. They all eventually died, 3 of the 4 of them died from some strange white body fuzz that didn't affect any of the other fish that were in the tank. My Platies that are in the tank are doing great and multiplying, but the Bettas didn't make it. :sad:
In a different tank I had 6 Sparkling Gouramis. I only have 3 left. I don't know why. I don't see any sickness hitting them, I just find them the next day with snails all over them. Is there something about Anabantids that I should know other than leaving about an inch of air at the top of the tank for them? :huh: I love my Sparkling Gouramis and don't want to loose anymore, and I'd like to get a regular male Betta Splendens, but I can't stand loosing them. Please help. :help: I feel so confused. :confused:

[Beeker]

Bump... :confused: :help:

[Kasakato]

It could be temp changes, or something in the water stressing them out, and making them more vulnerable to other disease. Look at your towns water quality report for details. Post a link if possible.

[Beeker]

The water has been fine. My town water has been the envy of many people on this forum.
I believe that the Bettas died from stress. They were unbelievably timid. I bought the Sparkling Gouramis from Live Aquaria. They were very young. Is it possible that poor genes could have caused it? All of the other fish I have gotten from them were healthy and good quality. I don't know if there was any problem with the personalities of the Gouramis. They all seemed to get along.

[Kasakato]

IT could be that. Shipping could of stressed them out more too. I would just wait and see.

[Aqualung]

I think you may be onto something regarding stress. My burmese chocolates are the most shy, timid fish I have ever seen. I think the sparkling gouramis and peaceful bettas have similar personalities. I was very worried when my chocolates were in QT, because they were visibly stressed. I lost one out of the three before they were moved into a planted tank with otos and a female peacock gudgeon. It took them over a month to overcome their fear of the gudgeon (the gudgeon never bothered them either). They are a bit more brave finally, although still quite shy. Their shyness also makes them quite difficult to feed. I have to drop a few bloodworms in and then back away from the tank while I watch to see if they eat.

In the case of the bettas, maybe the presence of the platies was stressing them out. Were there other fish in with the sparkling gouramis? Were there plenty of hiding places in the tanks? Were the fish eating well? Did they seem pale in color at all?

[pictus5]

no1 cares

[Aqualung]

no1 cares

That was an ignorant remark! Do we have a troll in our midst?

[Kasakato]

That was an ignorant remark! Do we have a troll in our midst?
A returning one indeed

[denali1234]

Gouramis are very prone to a bacterial infection, which can take a few months to do them in. They kind of just waste away, which can be hard to see on sparklers. I had one die of it. "Peaceful" bettas are not always so peaceful. Four in a tank would be very stressful because they are only truly happy if they can defend a piece of turf successfull, to be King so to speak. They may not hurt each other in fights, but they will never feel as if own a piece of water. Sometimes female bettas can be housed together if they are really peaceful, but they too can be territorial. Sparkling gouramis establish a pecking order, and sometimes having too many in a small place can cause undue stress.
Just my two cents, not sure if it helped.

[wataugachicken]

i don't have a solution, just wanted to say that the same thing happened to me. fine at night, but the next day my male betta and female betta in separate tanks were both completely covered in that white fuzz. i had neons and another kind of tetras and those weren't affected at all.

[Beeker]

I have had the Sparkling Gouramis for about 2 1/2 months now. The 3 deaths happened a couple weeks ago. I didn't see any symptoms. It seemed to have happened all of a sudden. They are far less timid than the Bettas were. They sometimes pick on my Ram. They don't seem to be a schooling fish but they do get along well with the other fish and don't seem to be timid.
The Peaceful Bettas which are a certain species of Betta and are the most peaceful and timid fish I have ever seen, I'm pretty sure were dying of this white fungus that was brought on by stress. They all got along great, but they couldn't seem to get over the most simple things. I thought I was making the water changes as stress free as possible but they had trouble dealing with even that! From the day I bought them, they would hide and very rarely come out. When they had gotten used to the tank they came out to eat, but then they would go hide again. I'm considering never getting a Betta Imbellis again and possibly just getting a regular Betta Splendens and maybe a couple of ADFs. But I don't want to make any move at all until I know that I didn't miss something on any special care for that Anabantid type of fish.

[Aqualung]

There are some anabantids that are probably equal to discus when it comes to difficulty in caring for them (licorice and chocolate gouramis come to mind), but as far as I know sparkling gouramis and peaceful bettas don't fall into this category.

From what I can tell, it doesn't seem like you did anything obviously wrong. I have to wonder if there was something with your water that didn't jive with them. There's also the possiblity that you just got weak stock. Sometimes things like this happen despite our best efforts.

[fantail]

It sounds like columnaris. Bettas especially are prone to this, what temperature is the tank? Imbellis bettas if thats what you had can and do live together peacefully, but ive only seen it done regarding pairs.
If it was columnaris then it starts around the head region and generally takes less than a day to kill and spreads quickly.
Now that ive written this i cant remember if you had the tank size and occupants listed?

found out that indeed imbellis males can be kept together. Its only the breeding of the veils and man made breeds that have the aggression.

[Beeker]

It was a 10 gallon tank and I had 3 Bettas in it and a small handful of snails. Two out of the 3 did seem to pair up. They didn't bother the third though. They all got along well, when they came out of hiding. The temp was 79 and it was a planted tank.