How to treat gourami?

[tpw85]

I've just got one dwarf gourami and added him about 24hrs ago I also added to my serpea tetras increasing them to 8 I also have 3 danios from my other smaller tank. Think the tetras are nipping his fins as there's chunks missing tried to show this in the picture what would be my next move ie treatment or removing him? My tank is the rio 300 at 350lts I run an fx5 do weekly 50%water changes in a low tech dirted tank thought this info would help with any treatment I might need to do. Thanks for any help.

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[sciencefiction]

You don't need any treatment besides moving the fish away from the nipping tank and doing large water changes to keep the water clean until the fins regrow. He won't recover in a tank where he's been attacked because stressed fish means weak immune system. I'd move him out straight away to a cycled tank. Hopefully you have one.

 

[Straight Shooter]

Lesson about tetras: not all are friendly. This tricks many a noob.

Serpaes are one of the worst by far. In reality they're telling the gourami to swim somewhere else but he can't get away.

If you are hoping to keep other fish besides serpae, I'd move the serpae on. Not many other fish they do well with, outside of huge tanks.

 

[tpw85]

Was thinking the same thing didn't realise that they were so nippy, lesson learnt on that one. I have a small tank (60lts) but has neons, guppys and danios in. I'll put an add on fb or Gumtree for the serpea and try and get them a more suitable home. In the mean time not sure if It would be ok to move him to the other tank. Thanks for the help.

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[G H Nelson]

Hi
I would move the fish to the other aquarium to stop more fin nipping and stress!
Gourami's just hate being stressed...they can be difficult to keep healthy the best of times!
hoggie

 

[alto]

You might read up on Dwarf gourami iridovirus - it's something to consider with this species - if possible, return to the shop & see how the rest of the group is faring.

I always wonder how wild caught Serpae tetras might differ in temperament ... your tank should be large enough if you want to try keeping this species, just increase the group size to 15-20 fish & see how you like them, they are a fun active fish (not a tankmate I'd choose for many gouramis & especially not "dwarf gouramis")

I have a small tank (60lts) but has neons, guppys and danios in

I'd not consider this an idea situation either for a dwarf gourami, perhaps you can move the danios to the larger tank (with serape tetras) - I'd be inclined to do daily water changes on this tank until gourami looks/acts much better.

 

[tpw85]

I do like the tetras there interesting to watch but feel that it's gonna be very difficult to Stock the rest of the tank will have to be very careful about what fish to choose. I got the dwarf gourami as was told they would be fine with the tetras. Also didn't realise that the tetras were so aggressive my fault for not doing the research went with intention of getting cherry barbs was silly of me. Will look into iridovirus, think I'm gonna do what you said and swap the danios with the gourami then decide on the tetras. Stressful stuff!

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[alto]

I've seen them do very well in larger tanks in groups of 20 or so, some care taken with tankmates as fish that prefer a quieter environment rarely do well longterm with any boisterous fish ... if you like the Serpae's I'd give them a go
(can you tell I like them over cherry barbs )

Most fish display more interesting social behaviours when kept in larger groups.

I've seen many a dwarf gourami harass & beat on other gourami's (& chosen target fish) so these guys are not all sunshine either
(it's just much more rare to see well bred ones these days, there are also some implications that most are now infected with iridovirus ... scientific paper that examined various sourced DG's & also identified other (iridovirus infected) species from some of the production farms)

 

[tpw85]

Mabey I should stick with them what could I keep with them as you like them and have experience keeping them I would very much appreciate any advise. Since I've increased there numbers they are very interesting and increasing there numbers further would be a good option. I've now moved the gourami with tetras going the other way put some food in my smaller tank after the switch and that's the first time I've seen him feed so hopefully in a couple of weeks he'll be ok .

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[tpw85]

Danios going the other way not tetras ooooops

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