Unhappy Gourami

[Sparky]

Hi!!

I've recently got into keeping fish and about 3 weeks ago went and bought myself 4 dwarf gourami. At that point in time (not being hugely knowledgable and all) I asked the LFS owner whether it was ok to buy 4 males and would they be aggressive towards each other? to which he replied yes. I've since read that this is not the case and they become terretorial!!!

Despite that though they seem to all be quite well, stay out of each other's way and generally are in good health (dorsal fins erect, bright colours and feeding well)..... all bar 1 . I can't see any signs of disease, but he doesn't have anywhere near the same appetite as the others, is slightly smaller now (I think due to eating less) and his colours are much less bright. I've read up on them now and I can't find a reason why he should be like this, all he really does is swim and look out the glass!! (Is he more intelligent than the others and wants to get out??)

I'm considering taking him and one of the other gourami back to my LFS and exchanging them for a pair of females instead, is this a good plan of action??

BTW, It's a 29Gl tank with 8 other Platty's


thanks for the help

Hank

 

[Danieow]

Hmm well if he's losing weight I wouldn't think that's a good sign. I have 3 dwarf gourami's and they all do well, I'm not sure why yours isn't but If he isn't attacking food that's not good. Unless you have a *very* rare picky gourami (which I'm not sure evern exists..lol), most gouramis will happily eat almost any fish food and are real 'pigs' of the fish tank. Try giving your guy frozen mosquito larvae, if he doesn't eat then I'd suggest taking him back, he could be sick or under serious stress. Also about getting a female that's a bad idea unless you plan to have more females than males. If there's only one female the males will go nuts and fight over her. My boys are friendly to each other but I bet if a female arrived one day they'd never be friends again.

 

[Sparky]

lol, I'd thought they'd be happier if I introduced some ladeez for them, having been to an all boys school I kinda sympathise with em!!! would 2 females and 2 males be ok??

As I said, the 3 other males are very happy and don't seem stressed, just him

 

[Danieow]

I've never owned female dwarf gouramis since they're not easy to find here so I'm not sure if 2 pairs or 3 females and 2 males would be better. Hopefully someone here knows? There will most likely be fighting at first until the females get the guys *whipped*..lol. Again I've never had females so I'm not positive about how many, I myself wouldn't add females since the guys get along, why fix something that isn't broke right? but If your males are fighting then it's a good way to keep them in line.

P.S. Be careful about over-stocking, Gourami's need lots of room, if you add females you may need a bigger tank.

 

[sylvia]

I think you should move the sick male to a seperate tank and try to help him. He will not survive at the LFS. What you have described is basicaly typical signs of a dwarf gourami with an internal bacterial infection (assuming water parameters are ok?).

Also, returning 3 males and replacing them with just 2 females is probably the best choice. Realy, one dwarf to every 10 gallons or so is a good number - so 3 total without having males outnumbering females (not a good idea ) is ideal. I'm not saying you can't keep more but it's generaly better for the fish to have as much room as possible for obvious reasons. I should add that a couple of male/female pairs would be ok but I still think a single male with 2 (3 if you preffer) females is a better option.

 

[Squishiebabe]

I think, maybe you should keep 2 males, and get some other fish!....Wouldnt male/females make fry (do you want fry? )
and yeah, that is a bit weird though, that hes smaller and seems different. I have one fish of mine that is abnormally small, and he goes along with my biggest guy!! ....guess it just depends...hope all goes well

 

[sylvia]

No, you can't raise dwarf gourami fry in a community tank. The fish may well build a bubblenest and attempt to spawn but it won't proceed any further than that.