A Dwarf Gourami Mini F A Q

[bugman2494]

I bought a pair of dwarf gouramis about 2 months ago. For the first weeks that I got them, I conditioned them to breed. On the 2nd week, the female decided to embrace and release her eggs. I am not raising the babies.
After keeping them for two months, the male has suddenly become very lethargic, drifting around, lying on gravel and not really interested in food. Has been going on for a few days. It was once the king of the tank and always making bubblenests, but now is always hiding at the back of the tank. I believe this is the early symptoms of Gourami Iridoviruses.

Question is because gourami iridoviruses is a a type of genetic material, will this affect my fries I am raising up?

 

[CrItIcaL]

hey I like all the pics of the dwarf gouramis. my dwarf is the pic on the left, about 4cm...
just wanted to show off lol

 

[Platygirl11]

I recently got a dwarf gourami. Not a pair, just alone. I probably won't get too many more after reading this. Critical (Since you're the only recent post) do you keep any other Gourami's?

 

[Polley]

So I am getting a 20g tank, already have a few mollys and a plec; I am also looking at purchasing a gourami. Would I be able to purchase a single gourami and keep it with other fish in a 20g tank? And that being said, would two male gouramis be too much?

 

[mini_matt]

I would just like to say dont be put off, I bought a pair of male dwarf gourami as my first fish and had hem in a 15l bowl with a pleco and several other small fish, I hadn't even cycled the tank and didn't know that I was masivly overstocking! they have been with me from the start and have been hardier than several other fish that I sadly lost through my nievaty and lack of knowledge, but I love watching them everyday they are lovely fish!

 

[FishySarah]

This thread was really helpful. I was thinking about adding a dwarf gourami and now I have decided against it. I want mostly hardy fish in my tank, plus my guppies do better with a low temperature and the dwarf gouramis seem to need a higher one. Since I have no quarantine tank, dwarf gouramis seem like a bad idea.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[barlowcj]

Hello, this is the article I was dreading to find. I am new to tropical fish keeping, setting a 65 Litre tank up just less than 3 months ago to try and get my little boy interested in the hobby.

Pride of place in the tank was a beautiful dwarft gourami. Maybe 3 or 4 weeks ago I noticed a small sore on his head. It looked as though another fish had taken a bite from him. The only other fish are corys, neon and lemon tetras and one tiny bristlenose, plus three dwarf honey gouramis, half the size of the dwarf gourami so it was a mystery as to who would be brave enough.

Then somebody mentioned that it might be a disease so I began a google search and found your article. The symptons you describe matched perfectly with what I was seeing, the sore had got larger and in the last few days he was lethargic and hanging around a top corner or skulking at the bottom, so about 20 mins ago, with heavy heart, dispatched him. I will now have to watch my honey gouramis like a hawk. How long do you think I would have to wait before I could be confident they haven't got the same problem?

For the record, I do a 20% water change every week and all the necesary filter changes and test the water every week getting a steady 7.0 ph and no nitrites, nitrates or ammonia. I have attached a photo of the sore on his head (how hard is it taking fish photos eh!!) just before I netted him.

They are beautiful fish and I'll miss him but wont't get another one until I have a little quarantine tank set up. By my experience you'd have to keep him in quarantine for at least 2-3 weeks, as that is how long it took for to notice anything wrong.

Thanks for a really useful article and thread.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I just lost two dwarf gouramis to this mysterious disease, but I must say, I'm THRILLED to know that's what it was!! I did HOURS of research trying to find out, and it wasn't until I got to this forum that you've provided the answer.

I still have 3 ... 2 males and one female ... and so far they seem to be doing just fine. They really are the most beautiful fish I have in my tank and I hope they'll give me years of enjoyment.

Now, if I could just get my male molly to quit beating up the other male ...

 

[L4byr1nth]

Wow, great thread!

I just got my second tank, a 240 litre Fluval Roma.

Was thinking of adding a Gourami of some type to my stock.

I love the look of the Dwarf Gourami, but will happily get another brightly-coloured variety if they turn out to be more hardy.

I don't want anything that will outgrow the tank, however. Any tips on which one to get? My LFS has Dwarf, Blue, and possibly Moonlight.

Ben.

 

[alex the bear]

Hi all
I wish I had read this post this morning.

I had a pair of dwarfs for nearly 3 months (didn't quarantine them or others when adding to the tank but definitely will now) a few days ago I thought the female (slightly silver) was pregnant as she had started to get fat but there was no sign of a bubble nest and the male (reddish markings) was not interested. To cut a long story short she grew to the size of a golf ball over night and her scales and eyes wer bulging so I rang lfs and they said exactly what is posted here, bacterial problems and that they would be amazed if she survived, even so I treated the tank with correct medicine but she soon after died

I will be buying myself a quarantine/ hospital tank today but is there anything else I can do to protect my other dwarf from getting ill? I do 30-50% changes once a week and feed every other day. My tank is clean, well filtered had a few pieces of bog wood and a few plants (2 java fern 1 other?)

Thanks Alex

 

[citrus-squid]

I really wish I had seen this thread before the weekend. I went out and bought myself a pair of dwarf gouramis (the pet store would only sell them in pairs, grr) as I'd had some when I was a kid in our family tank and they were my favourite. I can see now we were lucky with our dwarf, he lived for about 3 years (which I understand is quite a good life for one of these guys, I've read 3-4 years is the average life span) without any problems. I noticed in the tank in pet store that one or two of the females seemed a bit listless, but I didn't think it was much to be concerned about (lesson learned...). One of the females had a very odd looking body, like someone had come along and pinched her stomach and left a dent on either side. Anyway, I picked out a healthy looking, full grown male, and the most active female I could spot, but once they were in the bag on the way home, the female took ill. By the time we got them back to my tank at home, the female was very still. She was still breathing, but would just sit on the bottom of the tank. Periodically she'd get herself up and come to the surface for a gulp of air, but the next morning we found her dead The male seems to be doing fine, active and eating healthily. I'm keeping an eye on him of course, but I think that the fact he's full grown is maybe an indicator that he is fairly robust/didn't catch the mystery illness, whereas the female was still quite small and young.

I want to get the male a pair of females eventually, but I am extremely wary at the moment. I was pondering on waiting at least a week and returning to the pet store to see what they have left, but not sure this is a good idea. Anyone have any thoughts/advice on this matter? Are my other fish at risk from catching the potential infection, or is it something that only affects gouramis (I now only have 1 gourami in the whole tank, the others are zebra danios and WCM minnows)?

 

[transamkid1986]

hope im putting this in the right place, but i had just bought 2 male dwarf gouramis and 1 seems to be aggresive to the other. is this normal or should i put them in diff tanks? im going to be setting up a 20 gal in a few days but my friend would house 1 till i got it up and running. ihave never had this prob with my other gouramis in the past.

 

[blah111]

I just got one yesterday, and i haven't heard anything about them getting ill like that... great info

 

[masterfish]

 

I found the comments on this forum very useful as I am slowly but surely losing all my gouramis, and am close to pulling my hair out for an answer!!!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!

>I used to have 6 - 1 dwarf red, 1 dwarf, 2 gold and 2 opaline, and have now just got the 2 opalines left.
lockquote>
Opaline gouramis are a variety of Trichogaster trichopterus. They are, if not immune, then certainly not sensitive to the Dwarf Gourami Disease. Apart from the aggressiveness of the male specimens, these are among the most trouble-free fish in the hobby, and generally a sound investment. The same holds for the blue and yellow versions of this species.

>It all started about 2 months ago when the dwarf red mysteriously gained an open sore above its head. I went down to my fish shop and was given a course of Myxazin to try (5 days). This had no effect and over the course of a few days more sores appeared, it lost interest in food and stayed hidden in amongst the rocks before finally dying. Then all seemed well for a few weeks until one of the gold gouramis contracted the same illness. Slowly but surely they have all had the same symptoms and last night I finally lost the dwarf after keeping him for some five months.

Nothing cures Dwarf Gourami Disease. The best you can do is provide optimal conditions and hope the fish gets better itself. Since the problem is, at least partially, viral, even antibiotics won't work. Personally, I'd recommend painlessly destroying sick fish.

I have always regularly carried out partial water changes and change the pads in the filters regularly, and had begun to wonder if it was parasites from the frozen bloodworm that I occassionally give them.

No, the disease comes from the fish farms. No-one really knows how or why.

I wont add any more fish until I am certain that the opalines are going to be ok, but am now considering keeping some other types of tropical fish in the future (I only went with the gouramis as when I just had a few they were attacking any other type of fish.

My advice is avoid dwarf gouramis. Go with Colisa labiosus or Colisa fasciata instead -- they look similar, do well in communities, and are only a little bigger.

Any comments would be helpful!!! Thanks

Hope this helps, Neale
 

wow... i just bought 1 dwarf flame, and 1 dwarf neon blue yesterday... i thought they were perfect, but this forums is really making me nervous...

i dont want these kinds of issues.... just reading it makes me sad... but i dont know where to get the colisa labiosus or colisa fasciata... i bought mine from an average petco, but they'd been there several weeks and seem healthy... they're in a 10g with only one other fish, a green emerald cory...

now when you say painlessly destroy the sick fish (just in case anything does happen), how would one go about doing this?
whats a good, hardy, really pretty fish that could go in a 10g with only a couple other inhabitants? i need colorful, and pretty... like the dwarf gouramis
 

 
 

Hi SunnySeth

I'll let someone else answer your euthanasia question, but I do want to explain something about your other fish.

The fish in the picture is not a Corydoras at all, it's a Brochis splendins:

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/speci...?species_id=114

They are related to corys, and are often sold as emerald green corys, but they are larger. Like corys, they are schooling fish and need companions of the same species. Please try to get at least one more of them.

thats really cool, i wouldnt've guessed (though i did think about the fact that Tyrone is bigger than other cory's lol)... anywho... so i plan to take the dwarf gouramis back, for one, because im a paranoid person, and now it just seems like its a waiting game to see them die... not cool... and two, Fire (the flame one) wont let the bronchis get anything to eat, whether it be fallen flakes, or sinking tablets, Fire always pushes him away... so someone told me i could put a couple bosemani rainbows in, but its only 10 gallons... so i think not... can you name any hardy yet pretty fish that can go in a 10 gallon as a pair with three bronchis splendins? i like noticable, and large side area (such as the bosemanis, gouramis etc.)

please answer

i wanna get something tomorrow... and nobody has been answering tha question

 
 

Honestly, I'm not certain that even the brochis should be in a 10g long term. They get surprisingly large...

Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything to suggest that wouldn't beat up your current fish. (sorry, cichlids on the brain!) I just wanted to let you know for future reference that posting in these pinned topics isn't generally a very fast way to get an answer to questions. It's generally much better to start your own topic and just mention that your concerns stem from the information in the pin.

That being said, thanks for taking the time to read the pinned topics!

hmm... ok... but i read that the brochis splendens only gets to about 3.1 inches... i figured like two of thems little dudes would do fine... and im not saying that il never upgrage, il just see where things go from here... but im thinking il probably just get some like white skirt tetra... or some other tetra to replace the gouramis

my only suggestion now with the bottem dwellers neon tetras and the other fish that looks like them oh rihgt they are neon rasbora i think so good luck man this thread is old lol

 

[FishMaster4]

are blue gouramis a subcatagory of dwarf gouramis?
Oh and you can have one gourami or over seven nothing in between.