gourami's dieing

[spacecadet]

hey can anyone help me i had two gouramis one blue and one yellow and then i added two opaline gouramis within two or three days one of the gouramis was dead then i waited a week and added one more opaline gourami. two to three days later he was dead water checked out fine. what am i doing wrong
thank you for your time spacecadet

 

[lmw80]

Hi spacecadet.

First things first.... welcome to aquarium advice!

Ok, now...I need to know what size tank this is, what the other inhabitants are...and how well territories are staked (ie, lots of plants and/or objects). Male gouramis have been known to fight to the death for territories and establishing dominance...especially if the space is small and/or there are 2 males to one female. Opalines tend to be more calm and passive. Blue and gold (I am assuming that is the yellow one) are really only color variations of one another and can be quite aggresive.

 

[spacecadet]

gourami problems

i have a 29 gallon the other inhabitants are two clown loaches two pleco a julli cory and a albino cory a yellow gourami a blue gourami and an opalinei have two platy,a betta, 2 zebra danios to long fine leopard daios and three blue long fined danio 2 glolights, a neon tetra and a black neon tetra, thank you

 

[Allivymar]

Moved to Freshwater Unhealthy Fish Forum

 

[Christmasfish]

Sheez!
You have almost as many inches of fish in your 29 gal as I have in my 40! And I am definitely overstocked. But I get a custom 177 this summer.
No wonder your Gourami are shredding each other; IF it isn't the water getting em (and just because it seems fine..when you are overstocked you can experience random spikes from mini-cycles that do their damage and mini cycle away. I do one 50 and two 30 percent changes each week!).
You have fish that are going to grow quite large...clowns in average get 8 inches and top out around a foot when in an aquarium.
I had two move my fish from an 18 to a 40 an account of my clowns growth alone! they are growing faster than my BKG.

 

[Menagerie]

[center:53b3c3501e]Welcome to AA, spacecadet!! [/center:53b3c3501e]

That is a large bioload for that tank. It will require extra work (it can be done--most of us here do it ). Also, have you noticed aggression amoung the Gouramis?

 

[Christmasfish]

I know how hard just the phrase "overstocked" is to judge..
Especially looking at some of our sigs.
These facts are from "fishbase" There are little variations source to source...but it helps:
Botia macracanthus
FishBase name: Clown loach
Max. size: 30.0 cm TL (male/unsexed; Ref. 7020)

Trichogaster trichopterus
FishBase name: Three spot gourami
Max. size: 15.0 cm SL (male/unsexed; Ref. 30857)
This is the silver/opal blue and gold.
If your lfs is using the old name "opal" for the light colored morph Pearls(leeri-12cm) or wrong designation for a moonlight(15cm)....the fish is still the same size.

Corydoras julii
FishBase name: Leopard corydoras
Max. size: 5.2 cm SL (male/unsexed; Ref. 37395)

Hypostomus plecostomus
FishBase name: Suckermouth catfish
Max. size: 50.0 cm SL (male/unsexed; Ref. 26543)
The base size of most plecos is 20-40cm and there are some dwarf varieties now. They would be marked tho. We'll guess 20.

Xiphophorus maculatus
name: Southern platyfish
Max. size: 6.0 cm TL (male/unsexed; Ref. 5723)
This is the common platy .
Danio rerio
FishBase name: Zebra danio
Max. size: 6.0 cm TL (male/unsexed; Ref. 1672)

Danio kerri
FishBase name: Blue danio
Max. size: 5.0 cm TL (male/unsexed; Ref. 13371)


Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi
FishBase name: Black neon tetra
Max. size: 3.2 cm SL (male/unsexed; Ref. 38376)

Paracheirodon innesi
FishBase name: Neon tetra
Max. size: 2.2 cm SL (male/unsexed; Ref. 38376)

Hemigrammus erythrozonus
FishBase name: Glowlight tetra
Max. size: 3.3 cm TL (male/unsexed; Ref. 38376)

Betta splendens
FishBase name: Siamese fighting fish
Max. size: 6.5 cm TL (male/unsexed; Ref. 12693)
So in a short time you will have 193 cm of fish. At 2 cm /inch Thats like 70 inches of fish!
Plus I think I missed a fish! 8O
Time to research some fishies! And start getting a real strict water change schedule while they are in the current tank.

 

[ScottS]

If you're not seeing signs of disease/fungus/illness, my first guess would be aggression since that's a lot of fish and gourami for that tank. As noted, gourami aren't nice to their own kind.