Advice please, is my dwarf gourami ill?

[ajwhite]

Hi,

I am hoping someone can offer me some advise. I have a 200 litre tank with some cardinal tetras, mollies and dwarf rainbow fish. All had been going fine untill a couple of days ago when I added two dwarf red gourami's.

Initially one was very unfazed by the introduction the other went and found a corner to hide in, which happened to be the corner one of my male dwarf neon rainbows spends most of its time.

The following morning, I found the male that likes to hide in the spot the gourami had chosen had been beaten up, it was alive but unable to swim as was missing fins and looked rather bruised. I moved it to my "hospital" tank where it died not long later.

I assumed it was one of the gourami's that had, had a fight with the rainbow as I noticed two spots on the side of it where the scales had gone white.

Now two days after that incident the area around these is getting very dull in colour and appears the white is spreading.

Do you think this can be from a fight with a dwarf rainbow fish or is it dwarf gourami disease? I have attached a couple of photos showing what I mean.

Any advise would be really appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Essjay]

With dwarf gouramis, the coloured ones are male. Females are silver with perhaps a hint of stripes (though neon blue females do have some colour). The red variety have plain silver females, so if yours are both red, you have two males. These fish are territorial and the dominant one is trying to drive the subordinate one away, only he can't go away because they are in a tank. So the dominant male sees that as the subordinate one still challenging him so he is constantly attacking the subordinate one.
The only way to save the subordinate male is to remove him from the tank. You need to take one of them back to the shop.

 

[Colin_T]

The mark on the body is interesting. It's almost like the fish was sucked onto something but could also be a bacterial infection. If it is bacterial and has done that in one day, the fish will probably be dead tomorrow.

Move the fish into the spare tank and see how it looks in the morning. Have some floating lants in with it to hide under.

 

[ajwhite]

The mark on the body is interesting. It's almost like the fish was sucked onto something but could also be a bacterial infection. If it is bacterial and has done that in one day, the fish will probably be dead tomorrow.

Move the fish into the spare tank and see how it looks in the morning. Have some floating lants in with it to hide under.

Yeah I separated it, however, it died overnight, so I am presuming infection of some kind. Just keeping close eye on the other fish now to see if they start showing any signs of illness. The other gourami I added in at the same time seems fine, happily swimming around and eating. So will just keep a watch for now.

Thanks all

 

[Country joe]

I had a dwarf gourami male the day before, was absolutely fine swimming well, eating well, and no sign of disease, the next day it was dead, would not have been attacked, it was only in with tetras. If my tank is okay when I return from holiday, I will be getting a honey gourami, I've read they are more hardy.