Gourami, are females less active? Or have I bought a poorly one?

[Marne]

Bought a pair of dwarf gourami today, the male seems fit and healthy and the female has hardly moved, the lad in the shop told me the females are a bit boring but thought he was reeling to their looks. My female doesn't look well :( should I take her back to the shop and ask for my money back? ( though I feel a bit sad for her, maybe I should try and make her better?).

[EauRouge]

What sort of gouramis are they? What are your water readings? Is this your new tank? It's a bit soon to be introducing new fish, I would wait a few more weeks until it's all settled a bit.

[Marne]

My water readings are fine, the fish looked poorly in the shop tbh, I shouldn't have bought it but they were selling them in pairs ( as dwarf gourami) and I think she was the last female so I took her, all the other fish in my tank are fine. I should have waited and bought some more healthy looking ones from a different shop.

[Marne]

Looking a bit better this morning and swimming around a bit rather than sitting on the bottom, lets hope I can nurse her back to full health, I think she might have swim bladder (but not too bad), I have nursed few back from swim bladder so fingers crossed she might be ok.

[EauRouge]

Swim bladder problems aren't a disease in themselves, just a symptom of something else. It could be that she was just stressed from the move and needed a little time to settle in, so hopefully that's all it was :)

[Marne]

Was deffently like it in the shop ( before I bought it). My mum went into the same shop yesterday and bought fish and one of hers is poorly too and another looks as though it has fin rot, the man in the shop told he she could put guppies in a cold water tank. I don't think I will be going back there, if she dies I won't go back for a replacement, will just cut my loses and get a female from somewhere else. She's gone back to sitting on the bottom of hiding so not looking good, the male is fine and happily swimming around .

[EauRouge]

Let's hope she hasn't brought something in that could infect all your other fish :(

[Marne]

I hope not Eau, she has no marks on her, no sign of anything apart from not being very lively, I have a feeling she will die tonight, she's hardly moving, I wont replace her until next week (if none of the others come down with anything), luckily I don't have much else in there other than my plecs and guppies, my plecs seem to be quite hardy and I have far too many guppies at the moment anyway (though it will still be sad if I lose any).

Her fins looked clamped in the shop, I really shouldn't have took her home . Will the male be ok with out a female?

[EauRouge]

I would wait a while longer than that before replacing her, your tank is still new and needs time to settle in. It'll also give you time to set up a quarantine tank to protect the fish you already have.

The male will be fine without a female.

[lucysmam]

Iirc dwarf gourami are susceptible to dwarf gourami disease - it's something to do with the way they are bred for the vibrant colours. Beautiful fish but not very hardy at all (my brain's a bit & I can't think of a better way to put it)

I had a lone male in my established tank for about a year before we saw any problems with him. Literally one day he was fine and the next he was gasping

[EauRouge]

There is a virus that affects DGs, and there are a lot of low quality, inbred fish (same as many other species), so it could be that.

[Marne]

She died this morning

Male is still ok, I will wait and see how he gets on before thinking about getting anymore.

My mum has lost 2 of her guppies the same shop sold her for her cold water tank, I have now given her a heater, wont be going back to that shop again.