what's wrong with my dwarf gourami?

trojannemo · 03-01-2008, 12:36 AM

hey guys. i used to have the gourami in question, a powder blue dwarf along with a regular dwarf (both males) in my 10 gallon tank. then they got moved along to this bigger tank. all was great. since then i added a flame dwarf and the powder blue started to act listless, kinda boring really, and stopped looking like a happy fish (or at least, what one would imagine a happy fish would look like). however, that was 3 weeks ago. in all the time they've been together, the only fights occurred between the dwarf and the flame, never involving the powder blue himself...
now the dwarf died (on monday) and it's the flame and the powder blue as the only two dwarf gouramis, and though the flame looks great, big and colorful, the gourami looks emaciated, restless and very stressed. all of my other fish seem to be thriving, there's plenty of spaces for him to hide but he never does, he pretty much just stays near the top except when i open to feed, which he swims down to avoid me.
i dont think it could be oxygen depravation as i have two big filters and a 40 g air pump with 2 air stones and everyone's told me i have more than enough oxygenation going on...

he does not show any visible signs of disease (fins are fine, no ich, no hole-in-head, etc). is this depression/stress? caused by what? i mean, no other fish ever bothers him...
or is it possible to be some sort of disease? why would he have it and not any of the other fish?

give me ideas guys, i've had this little guy since the beginning of time, erm i mean jan of this year and i'd really want him to survive!

OneEyedTetra · 03-01-2008, 02:07 AM

gouramis are sensitive about territory and have been known to fight amongst themselves, I mean they are in the same category as bettas after all... I wouldn't be too surprised when they eliminate competing tankmates.

If two of them cohabitated peacefully together for some time, one more of their kind could throw the balance off and initiate their natural aggression for territory.

I have no idea if this relates, but I made the mistake of trying to introduce my Betta to my peaceful community tank (including Red Flame Dwarf.) I ended up elbows deep in water screaming to my husband to bring me a bag as soon as I could separate the two.

A couple of them may get along surprisingly well, but add another factor and it may throw the whole mess off.

cichlidgirl · 03-01-2008, 05:24 AM

I would agree that it sounds as though when you moved them to the bigger tank and added a new tankmate, that likely caused the problem. Try moving the tank decorations around to break up territories, try to provide natural screens such as rocks, little rock piles , plants etc.. to break up the line of site. If he is always up at the top of the tank and skittish that is a good sign he is recieving too much aggression from a tank mate. Especially if there is no other reason for being up there such as gulping air etc... I keep cichlids and these are some of the things we do to try to manage some territory issues. If it continues and nothing you do helps to make it more comfortable for him then you will have to make some tough decisions about removing one of them from the tank. Hope it wont come to that. I had to remove a fish today, similar thing, up at the top and shredded fins. I moved him to a different tank and he is happy now and everything is good. Sometimes that is the best option when nothing else works.