isis

Hi guys

I recently lost my one dwarf gourami to something... I have no idea what he had, but it killed him within 1 day.

He would eat the morning and hid away in the corner. Knowing something was wrong I put him in the hospital tank, turned the heat up a bit and put some garlic in the tank... and things just got worse from there.

He started showing a copper color patch on his back fin and in a matter of hours it just spread and got bigger. Not long after that he died

then a week later the second dwarf gourami started the same thing... I treated him the same way and he is now fine - phew!

But I still don't know what it was that killed my other gourami.

here are some pics of this spot I mentioned.
there is a pic of when he was still healthy... then the rest I tried to get that spot...
sorry for the bad quality... I hope you guys can make out the spot on his back towards the tail on his back fin.

they both lived in a community tank with 2 mollies, 1 indian glass fish and 2 clowns.

water conditions was fine all the time - pH 7, ammonia 0 an nitrites 0 temp between 26 and 27'C - as far as i remember its a 65gal tank.

Manny the gourami.jpg

Photo0150.jpg

Photo0151.jpg

Photo0160.jpg

Sick gourami 2.jpg

capekate

Hello Isis
Is it possible that the copper coloring on your Gourami may have been a little on the yellow side? The reason I ask is that the fish disease, Velvet has a yellowish coloring to it.
If your Gourami did in fact have Velvet you can use a product by Mardel called CopperSafe. You can also use some aquarium salt as well, about 1 tablespoon per each 5 gals of water. I was interested that one of the things you can do easily enough is to darken the tank. It seems the parasite that causes Velvet needs light to live and produce and the eggs from the velvet need to be killed off as well and darkening the tank seems to be able to do this.
If it was Velvet, here is a link below on it and maybe it will help you or at least it will be new information on another fish disease that we can keep for future references.
http://www.aboutfishonline.com/articles/velvet.html
I wish you much luck with your other Gourami. Just curious, what medication did you use? Was it fungus meds?
Ohh also, you mention that you have clowns in your tank? Are these the salt water variety?

isis

Hi there thank you for your reply.
I also thought of velvet - what I understood with velvet is that its a gold color and that you can only see it if you look at the fish from an angle...unless I understood it wrong. the thing is... it was not gold at all...it was a copper going on orange.

As you can see i did darken the tank - didn't help. Besides the garlic I used a General Tonic by Tetra safe (or something like that) I unfortunately didn't have meds for fungus - only for ICH and then that general one.

the clowns are fresh water clowns - still babies - only 4cm long.

Luckily the other gourami is doing well and none of the other fish got infected.

thank you so much for that link!!

capekate

Hi Isis
I wish I knew where I was reading about this copper color in a description of fish diseases. Well... hopefully someone with more knowledge will be along to give you a hand...

isis

Thats fine! no prob. I just never seen velvet myself... if this was it...boy it kills quick!!

My other gourami is the only gourami in the tank now... will he be ok or does he need a gourami friend? a female perhaps?

capekate

I have had gouramis together and solo in the tanks. If I had to choose, Id rather have the solo Gourami, as sometimes they really can chase each other around if they dont like each other. But to answer your question, a Gourami by itself is fine in a tank.

isis

Oh cool thank you!

and thank you for your advice

capekate

your welcome Isis
D. Gouramis are notorious for bringing in disease to a tank. Since you had the problems with the two already, I really would put off getting another, just in case it causes more problems.
Do you have any photos of your freshwater clown? I dont think I have ever seen one and love the idea that they can live in freshwater!

Butterfly

Are they Clown Loaches by any chance? If so they will be very sensitive o any meds in the tank. Sorry to hear about the gouramis.
Was the color change on the fisns a solid color or did it look like dots, may have to use a magnifying glass.
Carol

isis

Hi there

yes I have clown loaches - sorry if i caused confusion there guys.
the spot was just one big one... if you look at at its top back fin...its at the back of that fin down towards the tail.

Sick gourami spot.JPG

Butterfly

The reason I asked... in my research the only thing I found was a parasite that looked like a solid color until viewed under a magnifying glass and then it looked like tiny dots. Otherwise I don't know. Sorry.
Carol

DarkRevoultions

Then you should probably remove the clown loaches.

They could possibly be a threat, and it could be causing a lot of stress to your fish.

As you might have noticed that when we get stressed, just like a light or moderate stress in our bodies, we don't die, but the fishes it could be a different story. They probably over power themselves by creating so much toxin in their bodies, and then BOOM they die.

Although I don't know if it is just the toxins in the body..

PS: Garlic usually will destroy the vampires, but I don't know if garlic will help cure your gourami.

Lucy

Garlic won't necessarily cure a fish, but a few drops of garlic juice or Garlic Guard in their water helps to boost their immune system.