need help with my dwarf gourami

[nikki]

Hello,
I've had some problems for over a week now first with my female dwarf gourami (colisa lalia). Her behaviour changed, she started to hide and to be very shy, which she wasn't at all. I thought she was bothered by her male so I separated them, it didn't help. I was told something may be wrong in the water, the parameters were okay, though and at my fish club they advised me to make a water change of half the volume and to add salt in the new water. I did it. She was better. After a few days, I reintroduced her male and slowly she went back to her 'shy' behaviour. She hides and hardly eats. You advised me both in this forum and at my fish club to add another female, but yesterday the male started to hide, too. I added 2 young females but they don't care. They are now both hiding and hardly eating. I suppose they're ill but what can they have? I don't see anything.

 

[BondStreet]

hi nikki,

I had the same problem with my Glass Cats. They were extremely shy at first and RARELY ate. However, at the advice of some people on the site and my own research, I fed them LIVE brine shrimp. Now I had to actually stick my hand in the tank as close as I could to the fish I wanted to eat and let the live shrimp float around them and they ate and ate and ate. The key was not to scare them. So after rinsing the brine shrimp(as you should always rinse them under cool tap water and not dump them and the water they came in in your tank for cleanliness purposes) take some of the shrimp and slowly lower your hand into the tank as close as you can get and let the shrimp swim near the gourami. Try that and see if they eat. They should.

I hope that helps!
Bondstreet