# Pale & Lethargic Dwarf Gourami



## witchbitch (Jan 26, 2014)

Hi all. I've had my Dwarf Gourami, Raja, for about 2 years now and he's always been beautiful and colourful. Recently though, he's deteriorated at an alarming rate. He's totally pale now, I can barely see his colouring anymore he seems almost silver-y now. His tail fin seems droopy but his dorsal seems ok. I can't see any noticeable sores or tears on him, but he's so silvery its kind of hard to tell. 

I have him in a 10g with a dalmation molly (male, he's very annoying, but they've lived together their whole lives and they don't bother each other) and some neon tetras, all of which appear to be doing well. My nitrites and ammonia levels are 0 with my nitrates at around 20ppm.

He doesn't seem to be too keen on food but he does eat if he notices it. He spends a lot of time near the bottom kind of lying around and breathing heavily (it looks like). Several times I've thought that he died and went in with my net to take him out only to have him swim away. 

Any help is really appreciated, I hope I can save him 

PS I attached two pics, one from when I had just bought him vs today. Sorry for the terrible quality I only have my phone camera :/


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## Pruss (Nov 25, 2014)

Hi there. I'm sorry to hear this. Let me ask some questions...

Have you made any changes to how you keep the tank?
- substrate change?
- new filter/filter media?
- new fish?
- new plants?
- new inverts?
- changed heaters?

How often do you change water and in what quantity?

Are your other fish showing any symptoms at all?

Have you completed any treatments so far?

If you can, I'd quarantine your fish to try and treat his symptoms. This would allow you to try and help Raja out without putting the other fish through treatment. If your other fish are also showing symptoms then forget about quarantine and treat the tank.

If your other fish are fine, and Raha is the only one who is sick, one question that you need to ask is, "Is it just that Raja is at the end of his life." Mi don't know what the life expectancy of a dwarf gourami is... But the question needs to be considered.

If you decide to try and treat the symptoms you need to consider, "with what?" There are a number of different anti-bacterial and anti-fungal treatments available on the market and there is also the option to do a salt treatment.

Given where you're at, I'd likely do a 50% water change, and then begin salt treatment. Here's a link to treating with aquarium salt: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_treatment_(fishkeeping)

Failing that, I'd look to treatment with meds.

Good luck and keep us posted!

-- Pat


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## witchbitch (Jan 26, 2014)

Thanks for the response! I recently changed the filter but used most of the same media that I had in the old one (I downsized, the old filter was for a 70g tank lol). I usually change the water once a week about 40% (the molly poops a LOT). 

Maybe he is an old man now, I'm not fully sure of Dwarf Gourami life expectancy but it's probably a few years. His tank mates all seem good, very active and playful but he just kind of sulks around. 

I haven't chosen to treat Raja yet mostly because a) I can't figure out what the problem is (fungus, parasite, ich, etc.) and b) I don't like medicating my fish very much, I usually stick to salt treatments. I actually regularly add some aquarium salt to all of my tanks. My strategy for Raja at the moment is just clean water, less time with the light on so he's not stressed, and making sure he gets enough to eat. If he is at the end of his life I wanna make sure he enjoys his last little while...


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## witchbitch (Jan 26, 2014)

Watching Raja over the past few days has been heartbreaking. He seems to only be getting worse. He's definitely still alive, but he just sits in the corner leaning against the rock, staring at his reflection. I feel so bad for him 

I don't know if I should look into humanely ending his suffering or not, as I am a vegan and I don't really know if I could go through with it (I could ask someone else to do it though). Does anyone have any advice on what to do in a situation like this? Should I let nature take its course or should I end his suffering now? For the latter, what is a humane way to go about it? I don't have clove oil or vodka lying around unfortunately... (I've heard these are options)

Thanks for any advice.


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