Dwarf Gourami Disease

[FeldmansFish]

What is it and how can you tell if your DG has it?

 

[thursyanna]

I've never heard of it. I have a Neon Blue Dwarf Gourami, a Pearl Gourami, and a Giant Gourami.

 

[HUKIT]

Infected fish develop a variety of symptoms such as a loss of color, a dramatic decrease in activity, loss of appetite, the appearance of sores and lesions throughout the body, abdominal swelling, and finally death. It's untreatable and suspected infected fish should be euthanized immediately since its very contagious.

This effects Colisa lalia and probably accounts for a good portion of deaths in that species, the other issue is the stock quality has been declining steadily for some time due to demand. Which poor breeding techniques leads towards a lower immune system leaving the fish susceptible to viral infections such as this iridovirus. The fish 15-20 years ago were extremely hardy and now they're as fragile as glass. Unfortunately there are some fish such as neon tetras that I will never attempt again and Colsia lalia is on that list as well.

 

[armymp327]

+1 above, depending on how long you've had them if they did have it they would probably be dead already, it does not take very long.

and if they do there is nothing to be done about it, its is incurable and always fatal. its been reported that about 22% of dwarf gouramis coming from asia have it

 

[FeldmansFish]

Thanks, I was just wondering because my DG has this sore looking thing, and I just wasn't sure haha

 

[armymp327]

that is a sign, though DG are also susceptible to bacterial infections as well, id treat for that and hope its the case.