Female Gourami Lost Her Partner

[Kennedy008]

Hey guys,

I bought a pair of Dwarf Gouramis, male and female. Within 4 days the male Gourami was on his side, by day 5 he was dead. They both seemed quite shy but not esspecially so, coming out to feed etc. I even treated the tank to a week supply of live food which was being consumed readily.

The tank consists of 3xGlass Catfish, 4xCelestial Pearl Dannios, 1xRummy Nose Tetra, 1xFord Tailed Blue Eye Rainbowfish (I think it's called) and now that the male has died, 1xFemale Dwarf Gourami.

The tank is 45 litre, 2ft by 1ft, the temperature sits at around 25.5. It's well ventilated, air stone going all day and of course a pump. The tank has been set up for about 10 weeks. I do a 25% water change every week, cleaning the sand each time and clean the filter every two weeks.

Water Levels:
NO3: 10
NO2: 0
GH: 16
KH: 6
PH: 6.9

I guess what I'm asking is:
1) Should I buy another male Gourami to keep the female company?
2) Will she be ok on her own?
3) Was it just bad luck that he died? As I said he was eating fine one day, dead the next.

Thanks a lot guys,

Matt

 

[xtra51]

It is really hard to tell in these situations to be honest. If you want to try it again, I would surely get another male. If you choose not to get another male it is fine for the female because they are not schooling fish. The female will not be upset or lonely. It is up to you mostly in this situation

 

[xtra51]

In addition, I think you are doing a fantastic job taking care of your fish tank! Keep up the good work!

 

[Kennedy008]

Thanks a lot Xtra! I was mostly concerned about her dieing because of being lonely so maybe I'll wait a bit and then add a male down the line.

Thanks for the kind words, I'm really trying hard to maintain a good living environment for the fish, with 4 varieties of plants and various wooded areas for them to hide I think most of the fish seem very happy, but situations like this become very frustrating

 

[xtra51]

Yah I hear you! It is really hard starting out too because you do not know what to do yah know? I was very frantic when I first started out. Rushing around to fix things. Another thing you could do is just leave it. I follow the MESS motto, make it extremly simple stupid. Just a thought! Good luck with your tank! Please keep me informed on what your tank is doing. I would be eager to help with anything you need. And with your original question, I always struggled leaving just one fish in a tank, thinking they were lonely. The health of the fish really didn't change when I added other fish.

 

[Kennedy008]

Hey Xtra,
I just went to the store I got the Gouramis from just to see what state the remaining Gouramis are in... They're swimming upside down all over the place, not looking good! I mentioned it to the guys in there (who are always awesome) and they said yeah it's weird, they always QT their fish for a couple weeks and they do great in QT then once let onto the shop floor/peoples homes they seem to have a virus.
Anyway, he said as soon as they have a good batch in they'd replace them for me .
On a side note in the meantime I'm going to try my Celestial Pearl Dannios on some Dafnia! Yum!

 

[Kennedy008]

The cruicial thing I forgot to mention... At least I now know it's not my water!

 

[xtra51]

Yah So you are good! Thanks so much for keeping me posted Kennedy! I would argue that maybe the water at the store is all connected and there is some water that is infected.

 

[jamesbarton1990]

Hey,

I also just had my male DG die on me. I have had a m/f pair for around 3 months now, and last night I found him at the back of the tank behind a rock.

It was a shock as water is running at ph 7, no ammonia or nitrite, and GH of only 4/5. He looked in great health and I have successfully raised fry from the pair.

The guy in my LFS said his experience is that (depending on the pair) when the male dies the female dies of stress. Mine were attached at the hip and now he's gone she seems stressed, darting around and going to the surface more than usual.

Kennedy, would love to hear how your female is getting along?

 

[Kennedy008]

Hi James,


Sorry to hear about your Gourami! They seem like really bizarre fish, I've done a lot of reading and the 'Dwarf Gourami Disease' keeps popping up. Which in itself sounds odd.


Apparently the loss of a Gourami partner 'shouldn't' make a difference to the other because they're not schooling fish, but a couple days after my male died the female started swimming as though she was drunk, and spending most of her time on the tank bed. When I fed the fish she'd appear to attempt to feed but always fail. A few days later, this morning, she was dead.

It seems like the fish store got a bad batch because as I said when I went back all of them looked sick


I'm done with Dwarf Gouramis.


All my other fish were and are fine. I've read so many stories about Dwarf Gouramis just up and dieing, so I'm going to give them a miss.

How is your female getting along?

 

[jamesbarton1990]

I think my male may have just been at the end of his life, since I bought them as adults. They were a high grade pair (already proven to mate, which is why I wanted them), so they could have been quite old already.

The female is restless, swimming around the tank and through all the caves like she is trying to find him (recently read an article on PFK, debating whether fish have feelings...I think they do!). She also keeps going to the surface very frequently as if she is finding it hard to breath underwater. Normally she would have spent all the day hidden away .

We named them Romeo and Juliet, the reason being the guy at the shop told us the male will die first and the female will then go too.

 

[Kennedy008]

Aw that's very sad!!! I hope she's ok but it does sound like she's showing the same symptoms as mine before she died, always looking as though she's fighting for air n all. Since they're so old I guess the chances of it being a disease are lowered unless you've recently bought fish?

I don't suppose you have any other recommendations for community fish like Dwarf Gouramis that are around the same size, passive towards other fish and are 'pretty' looking?