sirdarksol

Over the past week, I have seen several members report that they have lost dwarf gourami to an illness that does not respond to any treatment, causes the fish to waste away at the bottom of the tank, and eventually takes the fish's life.

This illness is called iridovirus, and it is a plague among dwarf gourami right now.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FA035

http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-heal...l-disease.aspx

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.u....php?blogid=66

Edit: New URLhttp://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.u....php?news=1139

These two links have information regarding this illness.

My purpose for starting this thread is threefold.

#1, I want to express my sorrow for those of you who have gone through this with a DG. (I also want to thank you for posting your experiences, as they may have saved my tank, as I was thinking of getting a DG)

#2, I want the rest of the forum to know about the illness. It can species hop, meaning it may affect the other fish if you add a DG to an aquarium.

#3, I want to spur action (always the activist, I am ). If your LFS stocks DGs, talk to them, ask them to talk to their suppliers and say that they won't order any more DGs until this gets sorted out. Only when the suppliers realize that they are losing customers (and therefore, money), will this situation change. The suppliers in Singapore need to deal with this problem, even if it means quarantining all of their fish and developing a "safe" stock.

Edit and Update:
This virus seems to also be capable of travelling to bettas, at the very least. This is not scientifically confirmed, but a large number of members have lost bettas to nearly identical symptoms, so it seems likely that iridovirus is the culprit. These bettas were in conditions that potentially exposed them (usually indirectly) to dwarf gourami, further supporting this belief.
Rather than put all of the extra info in here, I'm going to just include links to other threads.
http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/be...ease-read.html

http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/be...tml#post379998

Betta Keepers Read Please

I'm also going to sticky this thread so there's a central bit of information regarding this issue. Mods and/or Mike, if you disagree with this being stickied, please feel free to un-sticky.

Edit: Okay, folks. I have a completely untested theory based on something Dave said in another thread. This disease leaves the fish too weak to swim, meaning they spend their time on the bottom of the tank.
It is possible (not likely, considering the other symptoms, but right now, I want to give you all as many options as possible) that what is killing gourami and bettas is not, directly, iridovirus. Instead, it may be that they are dying by drowning.
Dave suggested putting the fish in a floating container that allows them to sit nearer the surface. If it's easier for the fish to reach the surface, it may not drown. Some viruses (think cold or flu) just have a certain duration before the body can fight it off. If you survive the symptoms, your body will recover.
Again, I do not want to get anybody's hopes up too much, but it's something to be tested. Trying everything available to us is the least we can do.

Butters

my DG is dying as i type this because of this stupid virus. I'm not going to get another one, and i would advise you to not go out and get one now because its really sad watching the fish sit at the bottom not eating, swimming, or doing anything else. I was just lucky enough that i didnt buy new fish when he was still in there.

Fishies-for-me

I had 4 dwarf gouramis..I originally bought one male ..he was fine in my tank but I wanted to get him some females. I got 3 females who in a matter of a week started to die one by one...they would stop eating and within a day or two die. There belly was slightly bloated but not to any great degree. Then after all the females died my male got the same thing and stopped eating and died. I read about this virus after this and wonder if that could of been the cause for my fish dying. At first I thought it was stress from being chased by the " top dog " but they shouldn't die that fast from being chased a little by another of their own species. ( I have hiding places in the tank.) Now I wonder if my tank is infected with this whatever it is and will it affect my other fish in there? I have 10 glowlight tetras , 6 albino cory cats and 3 cherry barbs in a 36 gallon tank. I have ben planning on getting 2 or 3 angel fish to put in there but now wonder if I should wait a bit longer...it has been a month or two since the last gourami died...any suggestions??

Barbrella

I got 2 Cobalt Blue dwarfs - one on June 6 and one on June 8. The first died June 12. In the time I had him, he never ate anything and just hid. After a few days he started staying on the bottom all the time, acting terrified. Then I found him stuck on the filter intake. That day he started twitching and drifting and died that night.

He had no visible signs of any rot, infection, pararsites, disease or starvation. It's impossible to know for sure what killed him, but I do suspect iridovirus.

The other one is eating and seems healthy, but that's no guarantee that he's okay.

I suggest people stop buying DGs, until the the breeders in Asia do something to stop selling diseased fish. Money is the bottom line so the only way to make them take notice is to cut off the cash supply.

It SHOULD be safe after two months, but it's really not known if other species of fish can be carriers yet not show signs of disease themselves.

I guess you just have to try and see....

sirdarksol

I don't know, sqrly. Because the virus doesn't just affect gourami, it is possible that one of your fish is infected, possibly even as a carrier (meaning it doesn't seem to be sick, and will never be affected by the infection, but has it nonetheless. There are many animals who can carry rabies in this manner). However, if none of your other fish have it, the virus has likely long since died, since viruses normally need to be in a nucleus to survive for any length of time.

Fishies-for-me

Thanx...both of you. Guess I will just see what happens and any fish that go into that tank will have to stay there At least for a long while till I am sure that everyone is ok. ( Not even 100% sure that was what killed them ...but it sure sounds like the symptoms that they displayed , they looked healthy before and bang died in a couple of days.)

COBettaCouple

You know, we were talking about this at the last fish club meeting but in regards to German Blue Rams from the Asian markets. LFSs like to buy locally bred GBRs since they know the amount lost will be significantly less than fish shipped in from Asia.

This sounds even worse and I think shows there is some major reform needed there in the tropical fish industry.

Shawnie

ive been watching my dg's since this started, and thank god mine arent affected..but I got mine back in april ...I do want to say how sorry I am for everyones loss and I hope things dont progress to other fish

Barbrella

Yes, there have been very heavy losses in that species, and apparently in angelfish as well.

As for the DGs, many people complain of healthy looking fish who die in 3 - 6 months, no matter what level of care is given.

I would certainly be willing to pay more for fish domestically bred and disease free. It would be worth it not to have to watch beautiful creatures dying and being unable to do a thing about it.

COBettaCouple

True, we like to buy fish from local breeders as much as we can. Partly so we don't give the big chains the business and partly to support the local breeders but this is another good reason to.

Fishies-for-me

I would be happy to pay more for ANY healthy locally bred fish. I am so tired of buying fish that look healthy and are carrying some kind of problem. A male guppy that looks great only to see it has camallanus worms 1 week later. ( which infects the whole tank) Same guppies displaying Gyrodactylus now. ( I think anyhow. from the research I have been doing) betta fish that come down with velvet a few days after purchase. Now I know that some things just happen like the ICH my tank went thru. But buying fish and having them get sick with something that you know they must of been carrying when you bought them is disheartening to say the least. I wonder how many people that are new to the hobby quit because it is to much work...to much heart ache ..and to much money to deal with the problems? I know what a tank of happy healthy fish looks like and feels like to own. The pride you feel when some one looks at you tanks and says ...wow that looks amazing. I also know the dismay of having a sick fish or tank of fish and not really know what to do..the joy of treating a fish or a tank and bringing it back to health again...as I am sure many of you do also. But wouldnt it be nice to buy a fish with confidence that it is well and healthy?....ok my rant is over now...lol

Alessa

As many in this forum know I lost a dwarf gourami almost a month ago and I blamed it to my cycling...
but I dont know anymore if it was in fact cycling or the iridovirus...
my other gourami is fine so I still dont have the slightest clue if it was the virus or my biospira disaster...
Are there any signs in the bodies of the dead fishes?

Blub

Just found this: http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.u....php?news=1139

COBettaCouple

Great article!

sirdarksol

Thanks, Hatchet. The article has been copied in the main body of the text.

Alessa

i lost my two beautiful DGs to this horrible virus, then I saw that many bettas at the forum were dying the same way and feared for the worse...

i hope the breeders understand finally that they cant just keep sending sick fish and spreading the disease.

Mike

woah - thanks for posting this info SDS.

livetowin

I think my Blue DG might have come down with this because hes in a QT tank because i just got him and hes laying on one side and hes not really swimming or eating would it be this or something treatable

Alessa

the only thing you can do for him right now is keeping his water clean (20-50%) and hope it isnt this disease...
as I said, I lost two DGs to this virus... it is just horrible.

livetowin

Yea it is and i just got him yesterday and now all this. it is very stressful im sure for everyone that has DG's because they don't know if it will affect them

Jynx

I lost my dwarf a couple months ago... the only thing that's different was that he lost a lot of color before he died. I moved him out of the big tank into a smaller one 'cuz I didn't know if what he had was contagious or not, then kept him in a breeding net since my thought was that if he wasn't coming up to the surface to eat, he wasn't breathing like the should have been either. It was futile since he did wind up dying anyway, but at least I did what I could for him, even tried hand feeding him.

~Jynx

Edit: Ok, my DG was in a tank with other fish, none of the othe others got ill, so maybe it wasn't this? And I just bought 2 more... They seem fine right now, but I'll keep an eye on them. And I do want to say that the DG that I lost I had had for nearly a year. I'm still reading the other links, so I'll add more as I come across it. Oh... Question. And if this is answered in one of the other links, disreguard, but is it spreading to other non-labrynth fish?

Christian Patti

do you guys think its safe to buy dwarf gourmais yet?

sirdarksol

Jynx, it may still have been iridovirus, as there is a limited number of fish it is infecting.

I do not know if things have calmed down with the iridovirus. I guess Jynx will be one of the tests (sorry Jynx )

Jynx

So far they're good. Chasing each other, eating and swimming. My dwarf has come around and Powder (the powder blue dwarf) is quite the character. So far so good, but it's only been like a week.

~Jynx

livetowin

Yea I recently got two gold dwarfs and so far they seem to be doing great so maybe the virus is losing strength ( i hope)

Alessa

I seriously hope is about to be over. DGs are awesome fish. And jinx yes, it seems as if it has been spreading to bettas, another labryinth fish.

livetowin

really but how would it be spreading if bettas are usually kept in their own tank??

Alessa

because some people at the pet places (like Petsmart) where they have one huge filter thing for all the tanks, take out water from there and then add it to the betta cups. This disease is extremely contagious trough water so... we cam to the conclusion that this is how it spread.

livetowin

o I see do the pet stores still do that even with the outbreak of the virus

Alessa

I am pretty positive they still do. Although I got my closest petsmart to stop doing it! and I feel pretty good about it