lee250

I have 2 dwarf gouramis and one of them has gotten pretty fat and dosen't swim much, it just kinda rests on the bottom of the tank. I don't know if it is a male or female the profiles just said the female is more gray. It is not as colorfull as the other one. How else can I tell if it is a female? If it is a female is it pregnant or sick?

TFA101

the female's dorsal fin is more rounded than the males, and the female appears more silvery rather than the commonly seen blue

-pinky-

The female is a silvery-blue colour, whereas the male has red stripes on a blue background. When the female becomes pregnant her belly becomes distended so it could be a pregnant female. How much do you feed them?

lee250

I have the red gouramis and now it is laying on its side on the bottom so I don't think it is pregnant. I had a dwarf neon rainbowfish do this to, it got really fat and was swimming funny and a day after I put it in my quarintine tank it died. Is this some kinda sickness or something? The rainbow fish died like a week to a week and a half ago.

lee250

I fed my fish just now, they get fed twice a day, and he/she was swimming around a little and I think it ate a little and I caught it and it was swimming around when I was trying to catch it and it is in a container acclimating and it is still on its side

MeGustaUnaPez926

Maybe its bloated. Are there any other signs it could be sick? What are you water parameters?

lee250

The waters okay. Other than being really bloated it looks fine. No fungus,ick,dropsy or anything.

MeGustaUnaPez926

I'd do a water change. A large one. Are you using a water conditioner?

lee250

no I'm not using water conditioners. I put it in the quarintine tank already. And I did do a water change on sunday. It's a 55 gal tank and I change 10 gals at a time.

MeGustaUnaPez926

You definitely need a water conditioner. It removes the chlorine from your tap water. If the chemical stays in the water it will poison the fish and kill it. I have never had this happen so I don't know the symptoms. Someone else will have to recommend some brands, I use Jungle Start Right, and it works well for me. Its relatively inexpensive, and can make a difference between life and death for your fish. It was good to put it in quarantine, though.
EDIT: Oh, and welcome to FishLore!!

Iron waffle

It might be a fish tumor, it's apparently common in anabantids. Does it eat the other fish's food?

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore!!

you say the water is ok but what are the readings? gourami's need air from the top of the tank so laying on the bottom isnt good ever.....once we know what extaly the water readings are, we can go from there.....get some prime water conditioner either way and doing 30-50% water changes will help alot...

Fish_wise_man

Lee here might be some questions you should help answer for me please.

Did you feed them too much?

Do you siphon the tank?

What type of water do you use?

How big is your filter?

Do you have any aquarium plants?

Have you ever had this problem before?

And

Have you tried Melafix?

I don't know if it will work.. but it helps me a lot with my fishes.

I recommend that if you don't want to use any water conditioner, you can try and use RO water, you don't need any conditioner for it because it is soft water and all...

Please take my advice on aquarium plants especially if you don't use conditioner, or siphon the tank.

Plants absorb a lot of the nutrients in the water. So like nitrite or nitrate.. don't know which one.. but the plants do absorb little bits at a time. They like iron too which makes the leaves green, and fish waste.

I have a female gourami which looks pregnant, and 3 other male gouramis... but I never had any problems with them.

Shawnie

DONT use melafix with LABYRINTH FISH ....it will kill them and a gourami has labyrinth organs...

read this link fish wise man MELAFIX ALERT FOR LABYRINTH FISH....ALL PLEASE READ

Fish_wise_man

Are you sure not to use melafix?

I use it and I have a tank filled with gouramis, and I have been using Mela fix for many years now. I put it in every time one fish gets beat up or something.

Works very very well along with aqua plus, and aquarium salt.

fishpie

most likely it's over eating

agabr123

this thread is pretty old, please try to check the dates before posting