Dwarf gourami fat or something worse?

[Commander Shepard]

Any ideas if she's just overfed or there's something worse going on? Her belly has been slowly growing since I got her (maybe 3 weeks ago). Behaviour is completely normal.

 

[PARAGUAY]

Hopefully it might be just bloated ,some live Daphnia might help, if it's not showing distress and it does look healthy btw, l would just not.do anything just keep it under observation because Dwarf Gouramis are these days not as hardy as they used to be and prone to what is called Dwarf Gouramis Disease

 

[Gill]

looks like she is full of eggs, are there any males with her.
You can give her boiled deshelled peas to help cleanse.

 

[Commander Shepard]

looks like she is full of eggs, are there any males with her.
You can give her boiled deshelled peas to help cleanse.

There is a male, yes, though he hasn't made a bubble nest yet. I'll try the peas, but they haven't been interested in any vegetables or algae wafers so far. Did a good job with the hydra though.

 

[xZaiox]

Dwarf Gouramis are these days not as hardy as they used to be and prone to what is called Dwarf Gouramis Disease

Completely agree. I've had a lot of success with many fish species, but I've never been able to keep dwarf gouramis alive long-term. They all seem to get the iridovirus. Thankfully honey gouramis aren't as susceptible to the same issues the dwarf variety gets, although I do prefer the colours on the dwarf species.

 

[Commander Shepard]

I thought I'd do an update on this.

She's still bloated, to the same level as far as I can tell.

Fasting helps a little, but I have a lot of other juvenile fish and shrimp in there, so don't want to keep that up for very long.

Behaviour is still normal, though she's even more hungry now. First to reach the food and she tries to get it all for herself. Also started eating algae wafers and I even saw her picking at the leftover invitro slime on some buce I put in. Constantly scavenging as well.

Saw her flashing a couple of times last week, but not since, so I don't know if it means much.

Is there some routine parasite treatment worth trying that doesn't pose a risk to the rest of the tank?

 

[Bradders]

There does not appear to be anything on the fish's skin that usually comes with Dwarf Gourami disease; it looks pretty healthy and you say its still feeding - but I am not too familiar with these fish.

It could be an internal parasite as you say, but I think that only food realted treatments really work for internal issues - not something that is easy to do in the UK. Perhaps others with more knowledge can suggest a treatment if you decide to go down that route. However, as there is not much to go on at this stage, it might be a case of waiting and observing a little longer to see how it evolves.

 

[Conort2]

It looks pretty healthy to me. Probably just full of eggs if it’s a happy female.

 

[Gill]

Remember that female dwarf gouramies do look very fat when eggy. Best to keep giving some peas to help with a cleanse. If the male does not build a nest, put in some bubble wrap in a quiet corner. The male will recognise this as somewhere he can build a nest. And thus will trigger mating habits in both.
The female may expel the eggs naturally, ig her scales start to protrude where the eggs are kept. Then may not be anything you can do.
Also Indian Almond Leaves or Oak leaves which have gone brown are good for fish health especially with nesting fish. And Alder co es from nowhere near a road are great at releasing good stuff into the water.

Tey some bubblewrap only a small square of it and see if that triggers breeding. If cheaper you can use polystyrene cups cut in half. But they may be harder to find with the new single use regs in place now.

 

[Commander Shepard]

Remember that female dwarf gouramies do look very fat when eggy. Best to keep giving some peas to help with a cleanse. If the male does not build a nest, put in some bubble wrap in a quiet corner. The male will recognise this as somewhere he can build a nest. And thus will trigger mating habits in both.
The female may expel the eggs naturally, ig her scales start to protrude where the eggs are kept. Then may not be anything you can do.
Also Indian Almond Leaves or Oak leaves which have gone brown are good for fish health especially with nesting fish. And Alder co es from nowhere near a road are great at releasing good stuff into the water.

Tey some bubblewrap only a small square of it and see if that triggers breeding. If cheaper you can use polystyrene cups cut in half. But they may be harder to find with the new single use regs in place now.

Thanks Gill, that's very useful advice. I'll keep feeding some peas and try the bubble wrap as he hasn't tried to build anything. I also have some leaves and alder cones in there, though not enough to darken the water.

I was also wondering if it could be the food. I have quite a wide range all mixed together to try and get something to everyone - bugbites pellets, tetra micro granules, aquacare flakes and algae wafers. Also have some freeze dried brine shrimp and bloodworms, but I only add those occasionally.

 

[Gill]

leave off the Algae wafers for a while they are very rich, and gouramies are piggies when it comes to eating.
Cant see anything wrong with the other foods, have never tried bug bites - but breeders do rave about how much fish grow better on that. So maybe leave that out for a while as well,fish can go weeks without food and just graze on algae.

 

[Commander Shepard]

Have another update on this. The gourami is still alive, a bit less bloated, with a normal looking behaviour. I tried pretty much all the advice given - more peas, removed the heavier food (though added some back since), the bubble wrap nest (they didn't care about this at all), added more botanicals.

Unfortunately I did have some other losses - a chilli rasbora (started loosing colour then disappeared), some ramshorn snails and two red neon blue eye rainbows. They became inactive, swimming in place at the back of the tank and lost some colour. They also had reddish spots on their gill covers. Unfortunately they get eaten way too quick once they die for me to take them out and examine.

The tank is otherwise fine (I checked for ammonia, nitrite, and everything else I can measure and all were at 0), did a water change just in case. The cherry shrimp are multiplying, plants are growing.

 

[Bradders]

I am assuming that the cloudy water is just the camera picture?

 

[Commander Shepard]

I am assuming that the cloudy water is just the camera picture?

Yes, it's the glare from the light. Otherwise it's completely clear, with a slight brown from the botanicals.

 

[Bradders]

OK, so looking at the fish, it looks to have red gills? Also, you say it's swimming in one place, so it could be a bacterial infection which has gone to the gills causing stress. The fact you have had deaths in other fish before could mean this is a secondary infection.

I would treat with a bacterial infection medicine. Now, I would need some experts on here to suggest a good medicine as this is new to me so not sure what would be a good one to choose. (Also, I would treat for the whole aquarium).

 

[Commander Shepard]

OK, so looking at the fish, it looks to have red gills? Also, you say it's swimming in one place, so it could be a bacterial infection which has gone to the gills causing stress. The fact you have had deaths in other fish before could mean this is a secondary infection.

I would treat with a bacterial infection medicine. Now, I would need some experts on here to suggest a good medicine as this is new to me so not sure what would be a good one to choose. (Also, I would treat for the whole aquarium).

Yeah, I'm starting to think it might be a whole aquarium infection or parasite as I have fish and plants from a lot of different sources and the water parameters have been spot on the entire time, especially with regards to ammonia and other nutrients. Also using 2/3 rodi so it's not even very hard.

Red spots around the gills - they always had a slight tinge there, but it got stronger in the fish that ended up dying.

 

[Commander Shepard]

The next likely victim is this guy. White growth around the right gill, some scales sticking out and fairly lethargic. Moved him to a separate container with a double dose of king british fin rot + fungus and interpet anti internal bacteria. Mainly because I had those laying around and don't have any better ideas. Also added the interpet bacteria treatment to the main tank, though only a normal dose.

 

[Bradders]

The gill on that fish looks in poor order. I think the white growth is secondary to whatever has caused the gill issue. The lethargy (above being ill) is probably because of the damage/infection in the gills. This is the difference between the UK and other countries, where we can order animal antibiotics and use them to medicate the fish. I hate to say it, but at this stage, it might be a hard challenge to recover the fish.

Your water looks very clear in the pictures, which points to the fact that there are not a lot of bacteria living in the water column. But I am perplexed as to why your fish keep getting sick. If you want to provide all the data about your aquarium water chemistry (including PH, TDS, hardness, etc), I am happy to think about it further. Maybe two+ heads might be able to crack the case .......

 

[Commander Shepard]

The gill on that fish looks in poor order. I think the white growth is secondary to whatever has caused the gill issue. The lethargy (above being ill) is probably because of the damage/infection in the gills. This is the difference between the UK and other countries, where we can order animal antibiotics and use them to medicate the fish. I hate to say it, but at this stage, it might be a hard challenge to recover the fish.

Your water looks very clear in the pictures, which points to the fact that there are not a lot of bacteria living in the water column. But I am perplexed as to why your fish keep getting sick. If you want to provide all the data about your aquarium water chemistry (including PH, TDS, hardness, etc), I am happy to think about it further. Maybe two+ heads might be able to crack the case .......

View attachment 215246

Appreciate the help
For the water parameters, it's a 90l tank with a sump section at the back. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphorus are all at 0 as far as the drop tests are concerned. TDS is 265. GH is 160ppm and KH is 116, PH 7.3, though these are a couple of weeks old now. Potassium has always been really high, though slowly coming down. I've also been mixing in more RODI water over the last couple of months. GH came down from 240 to 160 over two months.

I can do some more detailed and up to date measurements tomorrow, including some of the metals.

Currently dosing small amounts of macros, iron and trace elements and also 0.3ml of the API CO2 every four days which seems to help with algae quite a bit.

Haven't cleaned the filter in a while - it's quite oversized and the water is crystal clear, but I'll do that tomorrow just in case.

It's this tank First aquascape: 90L Aquamanta tank

 

[Commander Shepard]

Can also probably dig up a couple different human antibiotics, but I wouldn't know where to start with dosing and not crashing the entire tank.