Have had 3 dwarf gouramis for a year and 3 months in this tank. Tank mates are 2 albino Corey catfish and Chinese algae eater. Had one die a few days ago with no long lasting symptoms. Was fine that morning by evening had curved spine, swollen head, and would barely swim. Now another is acting off but totally different symptoms. Has a small section of fuzzy/jelly like stuff on its back and is loosing color. It’s still eating but not swimming around much. Only thing different is algae eater seems to be picking on them. I separated it in a different tank for now. Is that causing this? What do I do? (Pics of current sick fish.. last is the one that died with curved spine)
Fuzzy Dwarf Gourami
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Dwarf gourami disease. 100% fatal. No treatment. Once the disease is in your aquarium it stays there until you break it down and disinfect everything, meaning any gourami you add going forward will be similarly infected.
Euthanise the gourami. Bleach treat the aquarium, filtration, throw away any aquascape that cant be treated. Start over. Consider that the other fish in the aquarium may now be carrying the disease even though they won't show symptoms or be effected. I know danios can be carriers, not sure about the fish you have. So they may pass on the disease to any new gourami you may get in the future. Other species of gourami may still get infected, although its less likely to be fatal.
It's estimated that 1 in 3 dwarf gouramis sold in the pet trade are infected. They really arent worth trying to keep.
Euthanise the gourami. Bleach treat the aquarium, filtration, throw away any aquascape that cant be treated. Start over. Consider that the other fish in the aquarium may now be carrying the disease even though they won't show symptoms or be effected. I know danios can be carriers, not sure about the fish you have. So they may pass on the disease to any new gourami you may get in the future. Other species of gourami may still get infected, although its less likely to be fatal.
It's estimated that 1 in 3 dwarf gouramis sold in the pet trade are infected. They really arent worth trying to keep.
This is so terrible! So there’s nothing I could have done differently? They get it as fry and that’s it? They are my 3 year olds fish and he helps take care of them and is pretty attached.Dwarf gourami disease. 100% fatal. No treatment. Once the disease is in your aquarium it stays there until you break it down and disinfect everything, meaning any gourami you add going forward will be similarly infected.
Euthanise the gourami. Bleach treat the aquarium. And consider that the other fish in the aquarium may be carrying the disease even though they won't show symptoms or be effected. So they may pass on the disease to any new gourami you may get in the future. Other species of gourami may still get infected, although its less likely to be fatal.
It's estimated that 1 in 3 dwarf gouramis sold in the pet trade are infected. They really arent worth trying to keep.
so I should go with a different breed of fish going forward? How do I humanly euthanize them?
Research is important, and the best thing to have done is avoid dwarf gourami full stop. Quarantine is an important tool too to ensure you arent adding infected fish into your display tank.
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Now the disease is in your aquarium i would avoid all gourami. Honey gourami is less risky, but they can still carry the disease and it can still kill them. Bleach treating the should eradicate the disease from the aquarium, but potentially your corys and algae eater are now carriers.
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Now the disease is in your aquarium i would avoid all gourami. Honey gourami is less risky, but they can still carry the disease and it can still kill them. Bleach treating the should eradicate the disease from the aquarium, but potentially your corys and algae eater are now carriers.
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Andy Sager
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As Aiken said, so many of the fish can be carriers but usually a condition goes bad in the water which stresses the fish which activates the virus and kills the fish. Make sure you get a full panel test of your tank water to make sure something is not going bad in the tank and the Gouramis were the " Canary in the coal mine" . 
The only thing I can think that’s obviously stressing them is the Chinese algae eater….. he’s been beating them up pretty hardcore lately but will definitely get my tank tested.As Aiken said, so many of the fish can be carriers but usually a condition goes bad in the water which stresses the fish which activates the virus and kills the fish. Make sure you get a full panel test of your tank water to make sure something is not going bad in the tank and the Gouramis were the " Canary in the coal mine" .
Chinese algae eaters get very territorial and grow quite big. They often don't make a good tankmate, so you need to make sure they are kept with fish that can look after themselves or at least get out of the way. They grow to 10" and need to be kept in a minimum 50 to 60 gallon aquarium. Looking at the photo of your aquarium its 10 to 15 gallons? I'd return or rehome the CAE. Long term, as they grow their diet will turn from algae to more protein based and it's common for them to get their protein by attaching to other fish to eat their slimecoat.
A better choice for algae control in your size aquarium would be a small group of otocinclus. Make sure your aquarium is a few months established before getting otos to ensure there is a good amount of biofilm in there for them to feed on.
A better choice for algae control in your size aquarium would be a small group of otocinclus. Make sure your aquarium is a few months established before getting otos to ensure there is a good amount of biofilm in there for them to feed on.
Once I’ve bleached everything to smithereens can I add the live plants back in that were in there? Or should they be discarded?
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Anything that might come into contact with water circulating through the aquarium either needs sterilising or throwing away. That's the actual aquarium, the heater, filtration, sponges, other filter media, substrate, aquascape including any live plants etc. Otherwise there is no point doing it. Ideally that includes the surviving fish as potentially they are carrying the disease and could just reinfect the aquarium once you've sterilised it.
I can see how discarding otherwise healthy fish might be an issue though, so its a decision for you to make based on how much risk you wish to take. My opinion, either sterilise/ get rid of everything and start again, or accept that dwarf gourami disease is present for ever more in the aquarium and don't keep gourami in there. You could take some risk and just sterilise the aquarium items, keep the surviving fish and sometime down the line keep gourami again hoping the fish didn't carry the disease and reinfect the aquarium, but there is potential to just run into the same problem again. I can't tell you how risk averse to be.
As for live plants, they can be bleach dipped. It's common practice to do this to kill off snails, snail eggs, algae spores etc.
Do you know how to bleach sterilise an aquarium, and how to bleach dip plants? There are plenty of tutorials on social media sites etc if you wanted to look into it.
I've moved your query about a new set up to a new thread.
I can see how discarding otherwise healthy fish might be an issue though, so its a decision for you to make based on how much risk you wish to take. My opinion, either sterilise/ get rid of everything and start again, or accept that dwarf gourami disease is present for ever more in the aquarium and don't keep gourami in there. You could take some risk and just sterilise the aquarium items, keep the surviving fish and sometime down the line keep gourami again hoping the fish didn't carry the disease and reinfect the aquarium, but there is potential to just run into the same problem again. I can't tell you how risk averse to be.
As for live plants, they can be bleach dipped. It's common practice to do this to kill off snails, snail eggs, algae spores etc.
Do you know how to bleach sterilise an aquarium, and how to bleach dip plants? There are plenty of tutorials on social media sites etc if you wanted to look into it.
I've moved your query about a new set up to a new thread.
The game plan is once the remaining gourami shows signs of the disease I will euthanize it…. Bleach sterilize the tank and all that’s it in… start from scratch with a new breed of fish from a reputable fish shop in the area vs. petsmart.
I don’t know how to bleach dip plants but I will definitely be looking it up.
Thank you for being so helpful! I obviously don’t know much about fish but I’m hoping to do some research and become more knowledgeable.
I don’t know how to bleach dip plants but I will definitely be looking it up.
Thank you for being so helpful! I obviously don’t know much about fish but I’m hoping to do some research and become more knowledgeable.
While going to a reputable shop is always a good idea, the issue with DGD is with the fish rather than the store you bought it from.
My local fish store recently came 2nd overall in our Practical Fishkeeping Magazine annual awards, and won more individual awards than any other store in the UK. They are either #1 or #2 in the whole country, depending on whether you are looking at the top prize or number of wins in specialist categories. You are just as likely to find infected dwarf gourami at my LFS as you are in Pets at Home (our version of petsmart). The difference might be that the LFS is more likely to take fish "off sale" over a suspicion of infection than the chain store. That actually happened with me last year. I was looking at some dwarf gourami, wondering whether to take a risk, the fish room manager took one look at their dwarf gourami and took them all off sale because they didn't look right to him.
My understanding on DGD is that the disease is quite common amongst several species of gourami, but something genetic in dwarf gourami makes it so much more virulent and deadly to them. Considerable effort and cost has gone into eradicating the disease, particularly from Asian fish farms, to no effect. It's so widespread I dont see it ever being a safe species. If one farm cleans things up, the disease will just get reintroduced into breeding stock from another farm. It would probably take a worldwide effort to remove all these fish from the hobby, and start again with wild caught fish. I think ultimately the fish will dissappear from the hobby, the disease will eventually be accidently introduced to wild stock, because these things tend to happen, and then no more dwarf gourami.
My local fish store recently came 2nd overall in our Practical Fishkeeping Magazine annual awards, and won more individual awards than any other store in the UK. They are either #1 or #2 in the whole country, depending on whether you are looking at the top prize or number of wins in specialist categories. You are just as likely to find infected dwarf gourami at my LFS as you are in Pets at Home (our version of petsmart). The difference might be that the LFS is more likely to take fish "off sale" over a suspicion of infection than the chain store. That actually happened with me last year. I was looking at some dwarf gourami, wondering whether to take a risk, the fish room manager took one look at their dwarf gourami and took them all off sale because they didn't look right to him.
My understanding on DGD is that the disease is quite common amongst several species of gourami, but something genetic in dwarf gourami makes it so much more virulent and deadly to them. Considerable effort and cost has gone into eradicating the disease, particularly from Asian fish farms, to no effect. It's so widespread I dont see it ever being a safe species. If one farm cleans things up, the disease will just get reintroduced into breeding stock from another farm. It would probably take a worldwide effort to remove all these fish from the hobby, and start again with wild caught fish. I think ultimately the fish will dissappear from the hobby, the disease will eventually be accidently introduced to wild stock, because these things tend to happen, and then no more dwarf gourami.
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