Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => The Emergency Room => Topic started by: Etienne on July 07, 2013, 08:34:09 AM
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Hi all,
This morning my 2nd dwarf gourami seemed rather distressed, he's not feeding and not moving from the bottom of the tank and seem to be gasping for air. I don't have a spare tank to move him to.
I got it on June 16th (1 month after my 1st one). The older one did chase him a bit for a couple of days then they seem to be going on not too badly. Did I make the beginner's mistake to not see a classic case of gourami bullying?
My main concern is that he's dying from a disease that might affect them other fish. I cannot see anything wrong with him (fungus, swollen body, etc...). I attached 2 pictures for your expert eyes.
Any thoughts?
Etienne
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Have you checked your water for Ammonia and Nitrite?
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Sorry, I meant to add this to the 1st post,
Ammonia = 0,
Nitrite = 0,
Nitrate <10ppm
pH=6.7
All the other fish are doing fine.
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It could be bullying. 60 litres is small for 2 male gouramis, and even a male/female pair as dwarf gouramis males are well known for attacking a female if she isn't 'in the mood'.
The other possibility is dwarf gourami iridovirus, a disease specific to dwarf gouramis; your other fish aren't at risk except for the second gourami. There are some experts that reckon every fish bred in the far east is already infected by the time they arrive at the shop. Unfortunately, it's incurable. Can I suggest you google it and look for descriptions/pictures of the symptoms to compare to your fish.
Hopefully it is not DGIV. If it is just bullying, you could try to separate the victim using one of those fry nets to stop the other one getting at him. Then if he recovers, I would rehome him as your tank is really too small for two.
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I moved it in to a net that I jammed under the lid of the tank. He still have access to the surface and the other one cannot get him.
As far as I can see, he does not have any of the symptoms of DGIV.
Will se how he is tomorrow. If it is DGIV another 24h won't make a difference in terms of contamination of the other DG.
I did hesitate to get another gourami as I thought my tank would have been too wee. I had some advice that it would be fine. Should have trusted my first instinct :(.
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RIP Rusty the DG :'(
I feel very bad that I only spotted that this morning, I should have seen that days ago >:(, the poor wee soul might still be alive...
Looked at the body vey carefully out of the water, no loss of colour, no enlarged spleen. I'm hopeful that not DGIV. That make me feel even more guilty about not spotting anything earlier but I'm hopeful that Salty (my other DG) is healthy. I know it's "just a fish" but I was responsible for his wee life. Just have to wait for my 4 years old to notice that Rusty is not here at feeding time tomorrow.
I'll keep a very close look at Salty for the next few week (if not months)...
:'( :'( :'(
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4 weeks on the other DG is doing fine with no signs DGIV.