# Gouramis and planted tanks



## Borntofish (Nov 30, 2007)

Hi folks,

My wife and I are having difficulties keeping gouramis in our planted tanks?? We have discussed this with many people at the LFS but they have never seen or heard of gouramis doing poorly in a planted tank. In fact, you would think they would thrive and be very happy in there?? Btw, this is in regards to the dwarf gouramis, such as "Flame", "powder blue" and honey gouramis. For some reason, they seem to do fine for several weeks to a month and then develop a respiratory problem and die a few days later. Recently, we placed a flame and a powder blue (both males) in our 20 gal planted tank. For the first two weeks they were doing great, the powder blue was even building a bubble nest with some of the wallichii that floated to the top. But two weeks later, the flame is doing great but the powder blue just died. He had labored breathing the 1st day and then pop-eye the next with death shorthly there after. All of the other fish are doing fine. Any thoughts??


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

I don't know what causes the problem but I've had the same thing happen to me. All other fish in the tank would be completely healthy and there were no water quality problems and the dwarf gourami would just take ill and die very quickly. I think it has more to do with the quality of the fish than anything you're doing. I've had good luck with the larger gourami, but no long-term success with the dwarf. I finally gave up trying to keep them and decided to try something else.


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

There are a lot of reports of Dwarf Gouramis coming in riddled with bacterial infections, at least over here there are anyway. Most of the ones shipped over die despite the best of care. Try to find some locally bred ones if you can, otherwise try other species.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

Remember that flame and powdered blues are selected forms meaning they will have less hardiness than normal colored gouramis. This reason is why some "breeds" of livebearers (mollies, swordtail, etc) aren't easy to keep although their natural kin are. You get more color, but less survivability. So, yeah, they will be more challenging. 

GL


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

I have Pearls, Moonlights, Gold (3-spot), Cosby (3-spot), Honey, Sparkling and Dwarf Gouramis in planted tanks. 
In general the wild colored ones are the oldest fish, the color selected varieties are the ones that do not seem to live long. The Dwarf Gouramis are the worst for this. I am lucky if I can keep them going for several months or a year. They seem to bloat and die. I have had my Pearls and Moonlights for several years. 
I have tried Chocolate Gouramis, and want to try again. They did not make it last time past about 2 months.


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## messy_da_legend (Feb 18, 2006)

I've only managed to keep 1 of my 3 Dwarfs I've had for over a week. That one lived well over a year in my tank, whereas the others just died within days for no aparent reason, no external symptons, apart from death obviously

Tom


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

I was talking to a friend about the color selected dwarfs and he mentioned that they may be hormone treated. I didn't think of that. This would attribute greatly to the unexplained deaths as hormone treating really has no benefit to the health of the fish, it usually is more like a firework- beautiful but short lived. I hope that's not the case.


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## Amazon_Replica (Nov 24, 2007)

There are medications out there that might help? I was at the lfs the other day and saw a bottle, didn't look at name was just browsing, and it said prevents pop eye, promotes healthy gills etc. Is this an option as the dwarfs are easily succeptible to and or already harboring a disease?


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

If it's an issue with selective breeding there isn't much you can do. It's not a good idea to medicate fish without a problem. This will produce more resilient bacteria strains and not cure the problem. I would suggest simply ignoring these strains of gourami and buying honeys or giants (which are actually dwarfs) which are beautiful when happy. Let the fish store learn the fate of the selected forms by having them die in their tanks instead of yours and eventually they will stop ordering them (that is if others did the same). If they were a wild variant I'd say they would be worth the effort.


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

I have 4 honeys in my tank right now, been going strong for 1 1/2 months.
Hopefully nothing happens xD


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## Borntofish (Nov 30, 2007)

Just wanted to thank everyone for all their input and experience. Of course, I was hoping it was something I was doing and not the species of fish, as my wife just loves the dwarf gouramis. But at least we know it is not our tanks and we can stop buying these fish to just die in our tanks at a latter date. We are now on the search for a pure set of honey gouramis. If anyone has any FS/FT please let me know!
Happy New Year!
Born to fish


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## punky (Feb 10, 2007)

I have had my 2 Dwarf Gouramis for 6 months without problems in my 55g planted tank. My only problem is that they fight quite often.


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## geckogirly (Dec 21, 2007)

I also had problems with Dwarf Gouramis. Several different varieties...never had any live past 6 months without developing some weird illness or just die suddenly.

I then turned to full sized Gouramis, Pearls and Opalines....I just lost my last two....had them for SEVEN YEARS!

If you love Gouramis, I really suggest going with the non-dwarf versions. I have kept Goldens, Opalines, and Pearls, and all have lived at least 3 years and two (Opalines and Pearls) lived 7 years.

And, with care and age, Opalines can nearly rival the Dwarf Blues...they truly get amazing colors!

Just a thought!

-Andrea


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## pokoen11 (Jan 6, 2022)

I have the same problem. My dwarf's died suddenly in an awesome planted tank. Could the problem be not enough swimming space? It says in this article about gourami care that if swimming space is not provided they gonna get ill. It also says that dwarf gouramis have a lot of problems and higher water requirements. Can you post any pictures of your tank?


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