Nearly dead dwarf gourami...

CourtneyRose

CourtneyRose

AC Members
Jul 6, 2009
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I went camping this weekend and came home to a sick blue dwarf gourami. I've never had problems with these guys before, so I have no idea what it is. I quarantined him (in a betta bowl... I have nothing else =/). His head almost looks swollen and he's breathing really hard. He can't float either. He's just laying on the bottom of the bowl on his side. He can barely swim... of course just enough to try to escape the net. But is there anything I can do to help him? or will he just die?
Sorry... not used to anything like this in my tanks.
btw the tank is a 29 gallon with 3 other dwarf gouramis, a honey gourami, gold gourami, 2 balloon rams and two pit bull plecostomuses. I've had it running, with no problems, since about March.
 
Probably dropsy which is very hard to cure in the later stages, which is what I believe your gourami is in now.

Maracyn-two is a good treatment for dropsy.
Epsom salt can be used as well, but proper dosing can be tricky in a small tank or in your case a bowl. I believe there are instructions in the disease forum article.

Either way keep the water clean, keep him isolated, watch the other fish in your main tank. BTW, you have quite a few gourami species in one 29 gallon tank. Make sure the gourami are not chasing and harassing eachother. That kind of stress can lead to injury, disease, and death in the fish.
 
They've never been aggressive towards each other, which kind of surprised me. The reason for all of them being there is my mother. She likes to randomly come home with fish thinking that since they're all gouramis, they'll all get along. Thankfully they have, even though from what I've read, the gold gourami is supposed to be semi-aggressive.
 
The fact that you have so many may actually be the reason they get along. If there are many gouramis together they can't establish a territory and therefore will be less aggressive towards one another. Gold gourami are semi aggressive, but dwarf gourami males can be very aggresive to one another, especially when defending their territory. Just really depends on the fish.
Good luck with your sick fish.
 
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