All of a sudden Gourmis go to pearly gates

[Owner_Of_A_Tuff_Bichir]

My wife has a 55 gal tank with 3 different varieties of gourmis, plus a few loaches and 3 tiger barbs. This is an established tank(older than 3 months). The gourmis and other fish were all introduced to the tank at the same time. My wife, she's pretty good about watching her numbers regarding nitrates ect.. currently her numbers are:
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
PH 7.6-7.8
water temp 78-80

She uses tubes to measure her stuff.

Fish are fed a variety of tropical flake, spirula, brine shrimp and blood worms (all freeze dried)

All of a sudden, we've lost 2 blues and I think the third one is a orange\reddish color.

What is causing the sudden death of the gourmis? We do notice 2 of them being pretty territorial, though the tank is heavily planted(plastic)

Any thoughts?? It is sure sad to see them sick.

[james481]

Sorry to hear about your fish. It could be any number of things really. Is their feces white and stringy? I know that many Gourami (mine included), for whatever reason come from the pet store with a healthy case of internal parasites. Feeding them garlic (or a food rich in garlic, like New Life Thera-A) should take care of that.

[Fishalicious]

I am hearing this more and more...just last week I believe there was a topic on here about it as well that every Dwarf was passing away. I really believe that the dwarfs on the market at the moment are extremely weak due to the high demand and mass breeding ... the breeding parents are fed on hormones to get them breeding quicker and the fry are then also fed with growth hormones and coloring agents to get them out as fast as possible. I don't think you have done anything wrong and your parameters are fine...just very weak fish.

[Lady Hobbs]

How's the oxygen level in your tank?

[Owner_Of_A_Tuff_Bichir]

How's the oxygen level in your tank?
How do you measure this?

I am going to assume this is OK because I do run a 23"wand and have a couple ship wrecks that bubble also.

I like my air bubbles:hmm3grin2orange:

[Ryuu]

Yeah thats plenty enough airation. I tink that fishalicious is getting at something. There had been a lot of dwarf gourami deaths, such as Gracieluvsplaties, and one more member. If they are dwarfs, you may have bought the unfortunate, and unhealthy ones. Otherwise, they must be some type of disease or such going around. When you say blue gourami, do you mean the one with the black dots, or the one that is a neon blue, with red/orange stripes?

Mike

[Fishalicious]

It won't be oxygen I believe as Labyrinth fish like Gourami's get their's from the surface...just a thought...

[GouramiGal]

I think the lovely fishalicious is correct. I think the dwarves are just very delicate. Sorry to hear about your loss!