Gourami died.

[themikestro]

Hi everyone, i'm a bit of a newbie and i've only been running my first tank (60x30cm) for two month now, so I apologise i've I miss some details, i'm keeping the tank clean and following all the rules as well as feeding my fish twice a day and ensuring it is never excessive, its a pretty well planted tank with some refuges for timid fish and everything in the tank seems fit and healty.... which is why I can't explain the death of my female dwarf gourami this morning.
I bought a male and female about 9 days ago a both seem perfectly happy if a little shy and neither has shown and signs of ill health, my on;y worry is that they aren't eating enough, when I feed the fish all the smaller faster fish seem to get most of it before the gouramis have taken an interest. Could my female have starved?

I feed my fish with standard everyday fishflakes, the odd freeze dried tubifex cube and pellets for my corydoras, is there something that would be more suitable?

Anyone who can shed light on this would be very useful, thanks.

Heres a list of my fish if that helps!

5x Zebra Danios
4x immature sword tails (one is a pest)
1x (now lonely) Male Dwarf Gourami
4x Colombian Red Fin Tetras
3x Corydoras

 

[wuvmybetta]

I don't think she would let herself starve to death, if she was hungry enough she would have went down to the bottom and fed with the cories

Do you have an ammonia/nitrite test kit? Perhaps you had a slight ammonia spike after you added the new fish.

Has the tank fully cycled yet?

As for food, there's all different kinds of good frozen foods you can feed. You can even blanch some veggies and give those to your fish

 

[themikestro]

Thanks for that, I'm heading to the pet shop after work so i'll pick up some test kits, I don't think it would kill a gourami in a week but the water in my area is pretty hard and I know gouramis are happier in quite soft water. I did have two golden gouramis that were very active (too active, lots of aggression towards each other) but the dwarf's seem pretty lethargic, is that the normal?

Hmmmm. Don't want unhappy fish!

 

[wuvmybetta]

Yeah tests kits are good to have, well worth the investment

The golden's are more aggressive than the dwarfs from what I hear, but in my experience the dwarfs can be pretty fiesty too. Maybe they're still just settling in, try rearranging some decor a bit so the golden's calm down and the dwarfs have a chance to establish territory of their own

Sorry about your female and welcome to the forum

 

[themikestro]

I guess maybe it takes a while for them to settle in, I have set the tank up with gouramis in mind so it's a bit dissapointing to see one die so early.
The golden's have gone, looked great but they were very territorial and in a fairly small tank like mine that seemed to be a very bad thing!

I'll get some test kits and see what the results come up with, perhaps I was just unlucky, i'm definately keen to see my fish flourish, the male dwarf seems quite big for its breed and has fantastic colour, so i'm certainly not going to give up on them.

While i'm here does anyone have experience with the Colomibian red fins tetras, information about them is hard to find, i've discovered that they like to nibble plants and go crazy for tubifex.

 

[Kossy]

And ammonia/nitrites are extremely toxic...and should/will kill in less then a week...you could follow my sig to cycling

 

[wuvmybetta]

Try to get another female (after you test)

They're very hard to come by in the states,I'm a little jealous

 

[themikestro]

Thanks for your help everyone, I've been following the books down to the dot about cycling and such, but I think like so many other people i've been impatient with it and no doubt I have added a few too many fish before my tank has been fully ready. Hopefully I won't be losing anymore fish in the near future.
You live and learn, unless you are a fish in which case they die and we learn. A life lesson indeed.

Bit of a grim tone to end on, sorry!

 

[wuvmybetta]

just do a few small water changes each week and they'll be fine