Gouramis very sick!

My poor dwarf gouramis are sick, one died yesterday and my last one is not looking very well. I have been trying to find out what is wrong with them. My other fish are fine. They just seem to loose weight, their stomach seems to go round and their fins go very close to their body, they hide all the time. They go off their food as well. I do water changes every week and all water readings are fine. Our local fish supplier has told me that he has had the same problem and doesn't stock them any more. (I didn't get my gouramis from him). Can anyone recommend any treatments that I could try to save my last one? I have a quarantine tank set up. If this one dies then I am not going to get any more, it is so distressing

 

How long has the tank been set up?
When you say "the tank readings are fine," what are the actual readings?
Any red marks on their bodies, especially around the gills?
How much of a water change do you do each week?
What are you feeding them?
I would suggest immediately doing a 25-50% water change. Clean water can't hurt. Don't treat them with Melafix, as this contains an oil that is bad for guorami.
Not sure what else to do. I'm sure someone else will come along with more info.

 

My tank has been set up for 6 months. I use an apI test kit ph 7.4 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 0. I do 1/3 water change each week. There doesn't seem to be any red marks at all. I have been feeding them flake food (nutrifin product) and spirulina disks to my silver dollar. My last gourami is hiding in a bell at the moment on the ground, doesn't look good.

 

HI barbara..with 0 nitrates, I think you should do the test again and really bang that nitrate bottle #2 ...those crystals settle and if your tank has been running for 6 months, you should have nitrates...either that or for some reason you started a minI cycle again....I hope the gourami's get better and sorry for the loss of one

 

During feeding time, do any of the fish chase the guorami away? I had a molly kill all of her tank mates by doing this.

I agree that your tank should have nitrates, and that they probably showed up as zero because the bottle wasn't shaken hard enough (it's really difficult to do) but the numbers I was really concerned about were ammonia and nitrite, which aren't as prone to error. Those are zero, so that's good. (I asked because often people will say "They're fine" and then we'll find out that they have .5 ammonia, which, while a small amount, is toxic)

Have you tried feeding anything else? Get some higher quality foods. Try freeze dried bloodworms, krill, little bits of parboiled veggie. Soak stuff in garlic juice to stimulate the fish's sense of smell.
One other possibility, and one that I really hope isn't the case, is fish TB. It is a wasting disease, and I'm not sure if the other sign (curved spine) would show up all that well in the guorami. If all of your guorami have died like this, it's likely. The second post has a list of symptoms. Let me know what match your fish.
Limit your physical contact with the tank, and wear gloves when you have to reach into the water. If you have cats, make sure that they can't get at and drink the water. I'm not positive that fish TB can jump to mammals, but it's not something you want to risk. Get the guorami into quarantine. If it's TB, hope that your other fish haven't been infected. I think about all you can do, if it is TB, is use high-power antibiotics and hope that they work.
Also, if your LFS has had this problem, you should let them know about the possibility of TB in the stock. The owner may want to contact the dealer, or watch for signs in the other fish.

Hope everything goes alright, please keep us updated and keep the information/questions coming so we can keep helping (or trying to help).

 

I hope its not TB I have had my hands in the tank when changing water and cleaning glass etc. I moved my little gourami into a quarantine tank, got some antibiotics, but it was too late she just died. I have bashed my nitrate bottles and shaken them heaps but the reading is still the same. I am not going to get anymore gouramis even tho I love them it is too sad to see them die. Thanks for your help and suggestions - Barb

 

well with 0 nitrates and you shook that blastic bottle, id say your tank went into a minI cycle for some reason... sorry for the loss of you gourami...

 

Our local fish supplier has told me that he has had the same problem and doesn't stock them any more.

There is a disease coming along with dwarf gouramis being imported from southeast Asia.

It's called iridovirus, and many gouramis are dying from it. From the sounds of it, your gouramis may have it. There's nothing you can do about it as there is no cure.

Look for more information.

ETA: I got a beautiful Cobalt Blue dwarf last Saturday, and last night he died. I really think it was from this disease, as there was no other reason for him to die.

 

Wow. That bites. Almost as bad as the TB (about the only reason it isn't is that it doesn't seem to be able to hop to people.)

 

So is this just for dwarfs, or all gouramis...

 

It seems to be just dwarfs now, but if petstores don't stop importing diseased fish, forcing Singapore clean up their act, who knows how badly it will spread to other gouramis and other species.

 

Yeah, I didn't read on the specifics of the disease, but it could be something that hits dwarf guoramis harder naturally, or it could be something highly communicable. With the big, shared water setups that most fish stores have, something like this could kill off the store's stock, not to mention the stock of any aquarists who bought infected fish.

 

Sorry you lost your Gourami

OMG! I just realize that what killed my first DG could have been this desease... not the biospira disaster!

 

With the big, shared water setups that most fish stores have, something like this could kill off the store's stock, not to mention the stock of any aquarists who bought infected fish.

Exactly. You see the staff dipping the nets into one tank, then the same net goes into another tank.

I was very upset to lose my little gourami, but am so glad I QT'd him or could have lost my whole community.

 

Aside from dipping nets, most of their equipment operates off of a huge, shared water supply. That is, the water that's currently in the molly tank was, a minute ago, in the guorami tank, and, ten minutes before that, in the danio tank, the neon tank, the guppy tank, etc...

 

My blue gourami has been acting the same way, and I just put parasite clear in the tank. He was pale, lost his spots, sits at the bottom, but goes BONKERS at food time. His belly also seems to be bloated. I tried everything else, but the parasite clear really seemed to have helped. He had his spots back today, and was more active. I know those aren't necessarily parasite signs, but I tried everything else so it was my last try. It seems to be working..
On a side note, my tank also has 0 nitrates. I have lots and lots of lava rock in there though, and read somewhere that lava rocks, that are well seasoned, are so porous that they hold tons of bacteria which act as nitrate filters. I almost wonder if its possible that they are so efficient they reduce them to zero? Do you have lava rocks?

 

PS. I have had the gourami a while, so its unlikely that its that disease.

 

yep sounds like an internal bacteria disease, my dwarfs had similar symptoms treated them for internal bacteria and they perked up in a couple of days.