Gourami Deaths

I have not had good luck with my gouramis... started with three now down to one, the one I thought was aggressive is the lone survivor ... the smaller ones died about 1 month after each other.. sudden onset started to become lethargic and died within hours .

 

What are your water parameters at?

 

What gouramispecies ?
And what tanksize ?

 

What gouramispecies ?
And what tanksize ?

sunset thicklipped gouramis, 3 female originally , 15 gallon tall

The water seems to be "harder" than normal and when I tested today our tap had nitrites. It usually doesn't??? I do use seachem prime and typically to 30-50 percent water changes once a week. The remaining fish seems fine.

 

and as far as the tap water. I have 3 other tanks with bettas and they are all fine.

 

What are your water parameters at?

I use the test strips not the master kit...however I do want to get one soon. Anyways the nitrites were at the .5 , the water is testing harder than normal and my tap today when I tested appears to have some nitrites...which it didn't test for before....nitrates 0....

 

I use the test strips not the master kit...however I do want to get one soon. Anyways the nitrites were at the .5 , the water is testing harder than normal and my tap today when I tested appears to have some nitrites...which it didn't test for before....nitrates 0....

Hmm , I wonder if the nitrites have stressed them out. I also use prime . Yeah unfortunately tap water parameters can vary from time to time so I test it every time before water changes because I had a similar event happen to me where my fish got sick because of a random surge of nitrites that I traced back to my tap after a water change . I was like this tank is cycled why am I getting nitrite readings!

 

They are supposed to be pretty hardy and like I said my bettas are all good. In another post I had written about some aggression and that is what I attributed the first gourami death to. I had all females but one was larger than the other and quite the bully. I divided the tank and the next smaller in line is the one that died. Maybe she was already stressed because of the aggression and couldn't handle the nitrites in addition. Anyways I guess I will really be watching the tap water more closely from now on!

 

They are supposed to be pretty hardy and like I said my bettas are all good. In another post I had written about some aggression and that is what I attributed the first gourami death to. I had all females but one was larger than the other and quite the bully. I divided the tank and the next smaller in line is the one that died. Maybe she was already stressed because of the aggression and couldn't handle the nitrites in addition. Anyways I guess I will really be watching the tap water more closely from now on!

Yeah, for sure . Hope everything goes well in the future