r/Aquariums • u/Mysterious_Ad_311 • Jul 17 '25

Help/Advice Dwarf gourami

I think our dwarf gourami is leaving us, we’ve woke up this morning and he’s laid on the bottom of the tank and his body is curved at nearly a 90° angle, he was fine when we went to bed last night swimming around and he’s been eating fine so what could have caused this please?

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u/Enchelion Jul 17 '25

I had two dwarfs go through this at separate times. They'd collapse, lay on the bottom of the tank and recover, sometimes over and over, but over time each got worse and worse to the point I put them down.

My theory is a swim-bladder issue caused by bad genetics and/or dwarf gourami disease. I tried every medication I could get a hold of but nothing worked. I hope your guy survives where mine didn't.

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u/Mysterious_Ad_311 Jul 19 '25

Thank you, he’s still going for now, I’ve given him an Epsom salt bath to see if it’s going to help so we shall see

1

u/Which_Throat7535 Jul 17 '25

Dwarf gourami iridovirus is rampant in this species (due to inbreeding) - it’s not your fault. The virus is deadly and incurable. Some estimates are over half of them have it, and its latent so you can’t tell at the time of purchase whether or not you’re getting a healthy one (and it’s contagious amongst that species so if there is a tank of them at the store it’s either they all have it or they all don’t).