Gourami-specific Disease???

B

barnettcb

AC Members
Oct 7, 2005
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Hello everyone!

I seem to have an unidentified disease in my li'l 10g tank. Here is the tank setup, etc.:
Tank:
10g freshwater
Marineland Penguin 100 (biowheel) filter
Heater
Bubble wand
Gravel substrate
Some decorations and live plants

Fish:
1 Sunset/Honey gourami (one of the dwarf sized ones - they seem to go by both names)
4 White cloud minnows
1 golden wonder killifish
2 threadfin rainbows
1 pleco
1 Burmese border botia

Water parameters are all good - no ammonia, no nitrite, nitrate < 20
Temp around 79 F

Ok, here’s the problem - the little gouramis keep dying after about 3 to 4 months. No other fish is displaying any signs of sickness, but the gouramis develop what look like black smudges on their bodies. It is most apparent on their light colored tails - it starts to look grayish colored. Additionally, they always die quickly. One day they are fine, the next day they are listing over to the side, barely moving and not eating and the next day they are dead. This has happened 3 times now, with no problems with the other fish.

I have tried a low dose of salt for a couple weeks (1 tsp. /gallon approx). I also dropped 1 Parasite Clear tab (Jungle Labs) in for a couple days (took out carbon from filter, then put a new filter in and did a 40% water change after 2 days). Despite these actions, my newest gourami (had him about a month) is starting to develop the grayish coloring on his body.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any help!
 
I think your tank is a bit overstocked to begin with. Golden Wonder Killies grow pretty big, 4 inches, and will start to eat your threadfin rainbows and white cloud minnows when he gets bigger. The pleco will also outgrow that tank, even the smaller species won't be happy in a 10g.

Otherwise, are you getting them from the same LFS/supplier? Maybe they all have something before you bought them.
 
my male jsut died the same way but the female seems ok. Odd. he was fine when I left for the weekend and when I got home he started swimming funky, then the next day it just turned sideways right in front of my eyes and died. I did not really notice anything strange about this fish prior to death.
 
Lost a male dwarf today. Found him on his side this morning. By 2:00 P.M. He was dead. He's the one in my avatar. That was my favorite fish too.
 
TropicalNorth said:
I think your tank is a bit overstocked to begin with. Golden Wonder Killies grow pretty big, 4 inches, and will start to eat your threadfin rainbows and white cloud minnows when he gets bigger. The pleco will also outgrow that tank, even the smaller species won't be happy in a 10g.

Otherwise, are you getting them from the same LFS/supplier? Maybe they all have something before you bought them.
Click to expand...

I will have to keep an eye on the killifish - certainly don't want him having a minnow snack... he's still only about 2 inches at this point. As for the pleco, I usually take them to the LFS when they have grown too big for the tank. I will probably trade my current pleco in next month and get an O'cat instead.

As for the gouramis, I have purchased them from two different stores, and I don't think they use the same suppliers as there stock is usually quite different.

I did some additional reading on diseases and wanted to clarify that this does not look like Columnaris, which I have seen described as "gray patches." This is more a darkening of the fishes pigment over a large area.
 
Well My Honeys are acting a bit strange.

When my boy died he had what looked like 2 damaged scales a week prior. It looked like white marks that went away (This does not look like ick, more like a lifted or damaged scale) and then a week later he died. I just found a similar looking scale on the female, she has not had her dark stripe for a week now (since I re-scaped the tank). I added another female when the boy died and it is doing very well. But my old female is hiding from me so I can't get a good look at the lighter colored scale.

I suppose it oculd be anything, or maybe just coincidence, but I have my fingers crossed that she will be ok.
 
i have had some really good experiences with dwarf gouramis and some not so good.

the dwarf i got from a single store LFS was extremely good quality; one of the best ive had. i woud still have him but my brother's blue gourami female killed it. she was only going to be in there for a week while his tank finished cycling. and it was a female.

i treid dwarfs from petsmart, but the last one i got had some fungus like stuff growing on it... it looked almost like all of the slime coat had pooled into one spot, so i took him back. they didnt have very good dwarfs for a long time but lately their dwarfs have beedn gettng better in quality.

so basically its hit and miss with them. you should try going to a different store for your new one so you can have a chance of getting a fish from a totally different breeder.
 
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