Clamped tails.

[Abbeys_Mom]

I have had just about enough of fighting with my Sparkling Gouramis. I have been losing them one by one to an unknown condition. They show no signs of illness other then a clamped tails. I have treated for ich, fungus and checked my water. None of the other fish are effected. It really has me stumped. Has any one seen this before?

[Lady Hobbs]

I lost more gourami's than any other fish. Like maybe 5 in a whole year of all fish total but everyone of my gourami's.....like 8 of just them. I won't be getting anymore of them. My neons are tougher than gourami's.

[cocoa_pleco]

Gouramis are sounding too delicate. I never have been a gourami person, and lost the only one i bought in 2004. I just bought a honey gourami 2 weeks ago, and things are good.

As for yours, the clamped fins are always a sign of stress, and if water parameters are good, and tankmates are fine, im not sure. This is just like my glowlight camping out in the coconut

[Abbeys_Mom]

I'll clarify a bit. They aren't just hunkering in a corner, their tails actually come to a point, like they are rolled up. I only have one out of 6 that seems to be immune. This is the only pic I could get. I moved my tank, so I can't get as close as I used to.

[Severus]

Defintely a sign of stress...
Unfortunetly i am not sure what to tell you. I have never had any luck with dwarf gouramis, but i wish you the best!

[kimmers318]

The sparkling seem especially susceptible to EVERYTHING. I have so far lost 4 of my 6 since purchase.....about the same symptoms if I notice anything before just finding a body. I can honestly admit though that with all that I have been thru with Dad lately there is always the chance things just went bad in the tank. I didn't find any bad water readings, but my guess is that they are not very hardy and even unknown factors that we can't test for will create issues. Due to this I have figured that they would probably thrive best under very pristine conditions in a species tank where tank maintenance would be very delicately balanced. If you don't clean enough or clean too much you may lose some.
I may try again with another group in the future, but not right now since I just fully stocked my large tank making room for puffs in other tanks.

[Abbeys_Mom]

I think it may be the loach or the danios. I wasn't having any problems till I added them. Both are always zipping around. The sparkling gouramis must be use to low traffic in the wild. I have never had any problems with gouramis. I had a pearl for almost 8 years. I have been really careful with the water changes because of the plants. I've been doing small changes twice a week.

I think I will just add them to the list of "Fish I can't keep". I feel bad, because if I had known they weren't right for my tank, I wouldn't have bought them. When the poor things are gone, I will probably add to the danio population.

Thank you for the help. I feel better knowing that it's not some disease that I was just not treating and that I can stop worrying that it's going to get all my fish.

[Severus]

I think I will just add them to the list of "Fish I can't keep".

That is exactly what i did with dwarf gouramis. I am having great luck with my 5" blue, but the dwarfs are another story!

[Abbeys_Mom]

My Dwarf Gourami pair are doing great. It's a shame I can't keep the little guys, they are so cute.

[Severus]

Yea, i have always liked them, just never been real successful with them! lol

[happyhouse]

i dont know what it is or what causes it but it doesnt just happen to gouramis, i bought a pair of rams for my husband and what you described is exactly the same as what happened to them, looking at your picture they went exactly the same as them, all the other fish are fine, just thier tails curled like in the pic and they were dead within a day or so, shame really cos my husband really liked them and they were really pretty

[Severus]

It is weird because clamped tails is usually a sign of stress, and if your water parameters are fine and no one is picking on them you would think they arent stressed. It must something internal..? Maybe not visible to the naked eye...

[Abbeys_Mom]

Reading up on the subject I have found that it may be a PH sensitivity. I have had problems with other PH sensitive fish. Rams, tetras and now these guys.

[*Sarah*]

Mine just up and died for no reason too. No signs of stress or illness, and water paramaters were great. I gave up.

HEY, this is my 500th post!

[Severus]

Reading up on the subject I have found that it may be a PH sensitivity. I have had problems with other PH sensitive fish. Rams, tetras and now these guys.

I think you may have found your answer