Gourami Jinx?

Squealor

Squealor

AC Members
Jun 30, 2005
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Boston, MA
Granted, I don't think that I'm a fish expert, but at the same time, I'm not exactly a newbie, either. I've had my planted 46g for about 1 1/2 years now and have had pretty good luck with all our fish.
I got two dwarf gouramis b/c they were really pretty and lived in the top part of the tank. They didn't last very long, became sick (though I really don't know what they ever had, non-specific symptoms) and died. I bought two sunset thick-lipped gouramis and the same thing happened to one of those... the remaining one seemed so lonely (they had always hung out together and swam together), so I bought two more, one male and one female. The male died within 2 days of us buying him, so I assume he was sick already or stressed from the move. The two remaining females lasted a couple months - the longest yet for any of my gouramis. Then, they just got sick... one I assume had dropsy (extremely bloated with scales sticking out) and the other one just wasted away (extremely thin and laid on the bottom a lot). All our other fish are great and no one seemed to pick on them at all.
I've vowed not to go with gouramis anymore b/c it really made me sad to see them all die. I just don't understand what went wrong... then the other day at my lfs, I saw a tank of dwarfs. The card on the tank said they require some aquarium salt. Is that true? It seems like all other parameters are fine in my tank.
 
The last time I checked (and they rarely fluctuate), these were the parameters:

tank:
pH: 7.0
kh: 50
Nitrates: 10
Nitrites: 0
Ammonia: 0

Tap:
pH: 8.4
kh: 30
Nitrates: 5

pH of tank is high when I do a water change, but the driftwood and co2 injection lowers it over time...
 
And I should say that we get all our fish from the same supplier... a great local place that has an outstanding reputation (not a normal lfs). They will tell you if they just received fish and cannot vouch for their health and none of our other fish have had problems...
 
Squealor said:
The last time I checked (and they rarely fluctuate), these were the parameters:

tank:
pH: 7.0
kh: 50
Nitrates: 10
Nitrites: 0
Ammonia: 0

Tap:
pH: 8.4
kh: 30
Nitrates: 5

pH of tank is high when I do a water change, but the driftwood and co2 injection lowers it over time...
Click to expand...

Hi,

The water params look great. I'm stumped. I've had the same trouble with Angelfish as you have had with Gouramis. Mine just keep getting sick and now one of mine has fin rot and the other in not eating and got hole-in-the-head a while back. :mad2:!

Cory Lover
 
What are the water params of the water that the fish were in before you brought them home (or in the bag)

And how did you acclimate them to your tank?
 
My experience with Dwarf Gouramis has been to have only ONE in a tank, and to make sure the tank is larger than you would think. They seem to hide a lot and slowly fade away if there is more than one male gourami in the tank (I've never had females...have never seen one to buy here.) They also don't like male bettas, so don't house them together.

I've also read that gourami's are rather susceptible to internal problems because of their flat body shape -- everything is rather scrunched up inside. I don't know the truth of this, but it makes sense to me.
 
the LFS near me has very good quality fish, but they cannot keep mollies alive in their store for some reasons. i have seen moorish idols and chocolate gouramis outlive mollies in this store. some stores get really good species from suppliers, but then they could get not-so-good-quality species from the same supplier
 
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