Has Anyone Ever Successfully Kept Dwarf Gouramis?

[Slyspy]

No luck here either. All dead after developing an ulcer. I won't try again.

 

[louis B]

Hey all - bit of a survey here, thought this was the best place as this forum seems to have the most traffic.

Over in the Gourami/Anabantoid forum there's been a LOT of members with problems with their dwarfs - typically they develop ulcers, then die shortly thereafter. Usually we've only had these dwarfs a few months, if that. According to sylvia - this is a common problem with dwarfs - who are prone to developing a particular 'dwarf gourami disease' if they are already not a carrier. In the last fortnight or so alone, there has been four of us - myself, Jozlyn, Biulu, and Colonel Mustard - and other have come out saying they've had the same thing happen to previous dwarfs in the past (Jozlyn's on her second, cuticom, and Nemo) and I'm sure there are others out there too. If anyone's interested in more info - check out our threads in that forum. *Edit* we've got another one with ulcers - ashlea87.
Throughout the threads we were posting on sylvia noticed a few of us were Australians - she thought this might be important as she recalled a fishkeeping magazine had done an article on dwarf gourami disease on fishes in Australian shops. That there might be something in the fish stocks in Australia.

One of my main points of posting this topic is to help me make a decision as to whether it is worth trying with dwarfs again - or to save myself the (inevitable?) heartache and go with another species (considering pearls). I do really love the dwarfs, I think they're beautiful, so now I ask you all : -

- Have you ever successfully kept dwarf gouramis for an extended period of time? How long? In particular, have any Aussies done so?

- What part of the world are you from?

- Also, has anyone else had the same unfortunate experiences with dwarfs as I've outlined above?

This will help me decide whether to try to keep dwarfs again, so please respond. It might be interesting to see if any problem areas stand out.
Thanks in advance

I am from England and my 3 month old dwarf gourami has been lying on the bottom of my fish tank for three days. death looks imminent. To make things worse my angel fish has just done exactly the same thing. I change 25% of my water every week and cannot understand what is wrong. Will they recover? Is there a cure? Help please. Louis B

 

[my fat fish]

i have 2 blue dwarf gurmaies in uk there very healthy and always out has them about 6 months now

 

[fishbone]

I've got two female dwarf(neon) gouramis and so far so good. Had them about 4 weeks and despite one of them getting stuck in a piece of bogwood and injuring itself (three weeks ago) they both seem to be doing fine. I'm keeping a close eye on them, but no signs of ulcers or any other health problems.
I'm in the UK and a lot of the lfs have had sick looking dwarfs in, but i've found one where they all look healthy. I'll be going there next week to see if they're still all looking well and hopefully getting a couple more females and two males.

 

[SouthernCross]

B)-->QUOTE(louis B @ Mar 24 2007, 03:45 AM) [snapback]1546227[/snapback]
I am from England and my 3 month old dwarf gourami has been lying on the bottom of my fish tank for three days. death looks imminent. To make things worse my angel fish has just done exactly the same thing. I change 25% of my water every week and cannot understand what is wrong. Will they recover? Is there a cure? Help please. Louis B[/quote]

Hey Louis B. Sorry to hear about your fish. Check out this thread here in the gourami forum:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=182995

It's my thread where sylvia (resident gourami expert) offered a load of advice and tried to help me with my problem when I had it. Now everyone else who posts with something similar generally get directed to this old thread of mine. There's probably about a half dozen related posts on the first two pages of the gourami forum, they might be worth checking out too.
Sorry to say though if your fish has stopped swimming (and eating) it's probably not likely they'll get better. But good luck.


In reference to this thread in general - it seems to have a lot to do with where you source your fish...

 

[cuticom]

Just curious has anyone bought a three spot gourami from a tank of ill dwarfs and kept it (quarantined obviously), would be interesting to find out if this thing easily jumps to other fish. I lost a bristle nose catty to some type of ulcer a few weeks after losing the first dwarf gourami, but couldnt say for certain it was the same thing that killed my dwarf.

Something else that could be tried is finding the name of the wholesaler the various shops use, it could all be originating from the same wholesaler? if so it cant be that hard to convince shop keepers to get the dwarfs from a diff wholesaler to see if it makes a difference?

I won't be going to Crossroads (place I got my dwarfs) for a few months, but I know Southerncross goes to the same place...

I love the dwarfs to, but haven't got any since I lost the one of three, didn't really see the point.

 

[Tessla]

I've had a total of three, two of which were in the past couple of years in a 10 gallon, the other was about ten years ago in a 25 gallon. All three in California, the first in much softer water than the two recent ones, tank maintainence and stocking levels were similar on both tanks. Don't remember how long the first one lived but I had him for a while, the two more recent gouramis I had for at least six months each. All three died the same way, they developed ulcers out of nowhere and died within a few weeks. Never had this problem with any other fish, including several other gouramis.

 

[weston adam]

No luck here either. All dead after developing an ulcer. I won't try again.

I kept three pairs of honey gouramis for about a year I had no problems at all I decided to do down a different fish keeping path and my brother has had them for about four months again no probs, I did however have no luck keeping dwarf blues they all died quickly my lfs says this is common in the species that as soon as one goes for some reason all the others will follow. I live in the UK by the way, good luck

 

[tmack]

USA - had 2 a couple of months ago & both perished within a couple months. I wasn't sure what the cause was - if it was ulcers or something else. I didn't check for ulcers at the time, and no other reason was apparent.

 

[SouthernCross]

Just curious has anyone bought a three spot gourami from a tank of ill dwarfs and kept it (quarantined obviously), would be interesting to find out if this thing easily jumps to other fish. I lost a bristle nose catty to some type of ulcer a few weeks after losing the first dwarf gourami, but couldnt say for certain it was the same thing that killed my dwarf.

Something else that could be tried is finding the name of the wholesaler the various shops use, it could all be originating from the same wholesaler? if so it cant be that hard to convince shop keepers to get the dwarfs from a diff wholesaler to see if it makes a difference?

I won't be going to Crossroads (place I got my dwarfs) for a few months, but I know Southerncross goes to the same place...

I love the dwarfs to, but haven't got any since I lost the one of three, didn't really see the point.

Well my platies and cories that were in with my dwarf when he was sick have been fine since, although I know they're pretty hardy fish anyway. I went to the store recently (mentioned previous page I think) and got a new pearl gourami. The tank of dwarfs they had this time didn't look all that great - very pale. I remember when I got my first one though they'd all been quite vibrant.

This has been an interesting thread . I thought maybe it would turn out it was just my own bad luck (and trying to make myself feel better ) but it seems more of us have had failures (in the same ways) rather than successes.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

i Had 2 blue dwarf gouramis and thay both died due to ulsers, it seemed many people had this problem but i don't think it's our falt and so life goes on in and outside of the tank.

 

[SharonC]

I just started keeping fish this year... and I did have two Dwarf Gouramis. Notice that I said HAD!!! Both have died. There were no ulcers but I think they may have had internal bacterial infections( stringy white poop). I won't be getting more!

 

[vinylman]

I can't remember the name of the fatal disease that's been afflicting Dwarf Gouramis for a while now (there are several news items about it on the PFK website) and I wouldn't go anywhere near them. It doesn't seem to affect any other type of Gourami, so I'm thinking about a pair of Red Honeys - gorgeous fish.

 

[confusion]

I've had mixed success with dwarf gouramis. I have 3 currently, but I've had about 9 in all. 1 died of dropsy, and the other 5 died "suddenly". As on I would be watching them swim, go out of the room, and come back and it would be dead nose down on the gravel. It's strange that so many have died the same way, no symptoms and in 4 different tanks.

I've had the same thing happen to a few honey gold gouramis. I have some regular honey gouramis and all have been doing great.

 

[Tiggle]

Ive only tried dwalfs once. A male neon blue dwalf i called Monty. i kept him quarantined for a few weeks before moving him into my neon tank. all was good for a few more weeks before the ulcer presented itself. Things went down hill from there and he died. Poor Monty. I havnt been game to try again.