dying pearl gouramis, any clues?

stangely enough only my pearls and swords were victims. my neon and dwarf gourami and susnset gourami made it out ok
 
My betta was killed by columnaris within a day. It can be a very dangerous disease, and the symptoms were very similar to what you're describing.
 
did you get the pearls all at the same LFS?
It sounds like you had a bunch that already had the virus and the virus became active after the couple of months in the new surroundings. Viral strains can be dormant for some time and re-activate due to stress or other variables. I am no doctor but after reading the posts, this is what it sounds like. Check with the LFS you got these from and see if any other pearls are having (or had) this happen to them.

sorry for your loss. :(
 
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