Sick dwarf blue gourami

[Davidpds]

I purchased a dwarf blue Gourami maybe three or four months ago and he has been doing just fine. I thought it might’ve been acting weird the last few days. It seem to stay more towards the bottom of the tank. Today I noticed it behind the filter intake at the top of the tank. It’s barely moving and all it does is sit there and breathe at the very surface of the water. Also his tail fun look sightly torn and his color is faded. The parameters were fine when last checked but I don’t have an at home test kit. The temperature is good. Shares a tank with 4 serpae, 2 platy, 3 Cory cats

 

[libertybelle]

You should definitely invest in an at home test kit so you can rule out water issues when things like this come up. Even test strips would be better than nothing and some of them are fairly accurate.

I would recommend you get your water tested when you can and do a water change now just in case. Fresh water will help him heal anyway.

That said, I strongly strongly suspect the serpaes are nipping him. They are notorious for that especially in groups of less than 6-8.

If your tank is large enough you could get more and they’ll often pester each other instead of tankmates. You may need to separate or get a breeder net to give the gourami space to heal. If your tank is too small for that your options are probably separate or rehome one or the other because they’re not likely going to stop.