A Very Sad Day...

[MBOU]

Dwarf Gouramis are prone to so many problems that can take a long time to show up. the happier and stronger the Gourami, the longer it takes to show up.

You did well for a year Willow.. he was obviously a happy gourami! You did well by him and better still, you helped him when he was in pain, its the kindest thing you could do for him.

Personally i dont like Dwarf Gouramis because of these problems its almost guaranteed... people always ask me if dwarf gouramis are prone to 'problems' and my answer is always no... they are just prone to dying.

I know its hard to think about now.. but how about thinking about Honey Gouramis? They are usually small in shops but can reach small dwarf gourami size.. and you can get red or yellow or the grey/orange wild type or you can mix colours. Plus you could have a little group of them, their behaviour is hilarious... they use their long ventral fins to 'box' each other when communicating

Or Croaking Gourami? Brown and electric blue shiney... not as bright or bolshy as the dwarf gouramis but nice and interesting!

Or fat lip gouramis are great if you can find them, either orange like the orange/red honey gouramis or the orange/red stripey like the dwarf gourami but a little larger...

All lovely species!

Also well worth getting a bottle of clove oil to stick in the cuboard for emergencies!

 

[Gilli]

Sorry to hear this - I know how attatched you can get to a fish. My honey dwarf gourami Mr Banana died of gourami disease and i'd had him for 18 months before it developed! Your nitrates although a little high im sure had nothing to do with it.

 

[sadguppy]

A wise man once said that "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

Yes, a wise yet entirely fictional character called Sherlock Holmes

Although a water change can't hurt, I very much doubt that was the cause. Sorry bout your fishy

 

[TomShootsPhoto]

Sorry to hear your loss

 

[soybean]

My dg, in my photo, died after about nine months of seemingly perfect health, one day he was lethargic and two days later he was dead. It's sad but you can only do your best for them while you have them, the rest is up to them.

 

[Ruskull]

I'm very sorry for your loss. I too lost my favorite fish the week, a Powder BLue Dwarf named King Powder. I only had him for about 3 months but he was so #137##' healthy looking I thought I found the perfect fish. Great personality too.

I just got (3) really young Gold Honey Gouramis to fill the new void in my tank. Maybe you should try a different kind too. Unfortunely Dwarf Gouramis are overbred so their immune systems are weak & they are prone to Dwarf Gourami Disease aka Dwarf Gourami Indovirus. From what I understand, the disease isn't in every fish, but it is a large percentage like 1 out of 4 or something like that. To further complicate things you can unknowingly introduce the disease to your tank when you add new fish that came from a system that had DGD in the water. It's just a theory though, but either way the odds aren't good with this beautiful fish.

 

[willowstwin]

I think I'll definitely try another type of gourami... He was fantastic for what a lot of peoplpe say "just a fish". He definitely showd facial recognition, he always came to the tank and stroked the glass with his feelers, anything new to the tank had to be stroked >.< including my hand when I did water changes.

So I'm not put off gouramis, just the dwarfs due to their problems. I'll definitely look into the other types of gouramis. Just nothing too big with the micro-species I plan to have in my 90litre (when I get it).