Problems With Dwarf Gourami Swimming Head Down

I'm here! First newly registered member after Peter, the owner 

Apart from the swimming you say he looks OK. No dark greyness or sores? No swelling of the abdomen? I know that dwarf gouramis are very susceptible to dwarf gourami iridovius (DGIV), it is very common in dwarf gouramis imported from the Far East. But the symptoms of that are going grey, red sores on the head and becoming listless. If it does turn out to be this, then I'm afraid there is no known cure.

The other thing that occurs to me is a swim bladder problem as that usually affects the fish's swimming. This can be caused by an infection or something as simple as constipation. If it is the latter, try feeding cooked, deshelled, mashed peas to the tank, then no food the next day. All my fish go mad for peas and if it is constipation, that should help.
Which eSHa product are you using? If it's eSHa 2000 that is reputed to help things like dropsy so could be good for internal infections, though I haven't tried it for that myself.

Hi Chrishax,

I particularly like dwarf gouramis, but find them very difficult to keep. I have noticed that they seem to be particularly sensitive to changes in the water quality - perhaps the minerals that we don't often measure, or can't measure too accurately. I have had few sad looking fish that have looked like they were going to recover after I did larger than normal water changes, at least every other day. However, to get them back to full health requires a longer period of increased care and attention than I am fortunately capable of. 

I would be interested if you are able to nurse your dwarf gourami back to health with very frequent, largish water changes.

Helen