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 Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 9:34 pm
So, you like how pretty the Gourami looks and want to buy one? Well, if you are buying what can be commonly called the dwarf gourami (or any gourami bread at a fish farm), you should know that they can easily die on you without any good reason!
It turns out that the ones that come from the fish farm can often get a disease that will cause them to die within weeks. It sucks because there is no treatment, and there is not much know about it (including prevention).
The key to making sure your gourami survives is to be careful when buying at the LFS. You should (with any fish), make sure all the fish in the tank are healthy and only buy healthy looking fish. If you see any that are:
-Constantly 'breathing' from the surface
- or not going to the surface at all
you do not want to buy them! When a gourami has this 'mystery' disease, you may notice:
-will not go to surface
-lethargic
-won't eat much
-open sores
-(maybe a few other symptoms)
There isn't much you can do at this point. Remove them from your tank (to ensure the other fish are healthy) and provide them the best opportunity to try and recover on their own. It is very frustrating (as I have had this happen to me without the prior knowledge) and sucks to have fish die, but it seems to be a commonish problem with gouramis.
They are beautiful fish, but just make sure you pick the right one and give them good living conditions (plants, obstacles, etc, 78-84 F)
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Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:45 am
well this would apply to all fish ^_^ (minus the surface part because not all fish need air)
i have seen other fish get the same symptoms you have described (of course sans the air) and those symptoms could be from various diseases (most sick fish will not eat and are lethargic no matter what it might be)
and there are MANY kinds of dwarf gourami
you should describe the one you had
i have dwarf honey gourami and they are supposed to be one of the more sensitive ones and they are all fine :3 i also have pearl gourami
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Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:39 pm
I am saying this because on another fish forum (community) that I belong to, many people post about their gourami dying soon after purchase and you don't see that as often with other fish. It seems to be very common for almost all types of gourami fish. I just got 2 blue dwarf and put them in a separate tank. If I had put them in with other fish, they might not have done so well.
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Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:06 pm
dwarf gouramis are sensitive to water parameters
if something is off in your water they wont live. now if you got one of the larger gouramis like the golden or the three spot you wouldnt have that same problem
other fish that would die soon after being added to an improper tank would be puffers and discus because they are just sensitive to certain things in the water
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:39 pm
I've never heard of this Gourami killer on any of the fish forums I frequent, and Gourami's are often recommended. I think if the problem was as big as you say it is, there would be more warning about it. Probably like Lizzy says there's just something wrong with you water. I suggest more frequent water changes and if they only eat when the worms float by them, then target feed the gouramis. It doesn't take that much longer than just dumping them in.
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Posted: Thu May 07, 2009 11:13 am
I also belong to a very large fish forum that has many users who have encountered this problem. Somebody wrote an entire article about it that is more detailed than mine.
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Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:44 pm
It's called iridovirus, and yes, the majority of dwarf gouramis you find in pet stores will have it. They'll die within months no matter what you do. If you want a dwarf gourami, try to find a supplier with wild-caught stock.
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Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 6:23 am
Feldspar It's called iridovirus, and yes, the majority of dwarf gouramis you find in pet stores will have it. They'll die within months no matter what you do. If you want a dwarf gourami, try to find a supplier with wild-caught stock. eh, im really not a fan of keeping wild caught animals, its not fair to them. but its really true that my little gouramis will die in a few months? i feel so sad now, besides my pleco they are my favorites
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Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:27 pm
Sometimes wild caught stock is healthier than captive bred, although I agree, in most cases captive bred is best.
Unfortunately there's no way of knowing if your gouramis will die. I don't know what the current status of iridovirus is, or the perecentage of pet store stock currently carrying it.
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 3:43 pm
Vanilla eXee
I've never heard of this Gourami killer on any of the fish forums I frequent, and Gourami's are often recommended. I think if the problem was as big as you say it is, there would be more warning about it. Probably like Lizzy says there's just something wrong with you water. I suggest more frequent water changes and if they only eat when the worms float by them, then target feed the gouramis. It doesn't take that much longer than just dumping them in. i find it funny when people pass comments like this. HOW often do you go to the fish store and the person knows everything? Plus, how often do you buy something and later find out it isn't what they called it? I find plants a huge problem, some stores will sell you tons of plants that look nice but ARE NOT underwater plants. Just because the store sells it doesn't mean it's good. Plus look at the stores who buy fish that have been removed from the water, injected with dye from a needle and put back in? That's cruel but stores buy them because they 'look nice.'
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