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I have a twenty five gallon tank with an assortment of fish. In that assortment there WERE 3 Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami's. This fine morning I got up for work, put the dogs out and as per usual, I fed the fish. All is well. Approximatly 9 hours later I got home from work. I brought the dogs in and as per usual I fed the fish. All is definitly NOT well. I found one of my Powder Blue's dead at the bottom of the tank.

Upon discovering the loss of Hank, I think it was Hank, I immediatly started a barrage of tests on the water parameters. Everything was Fine. IT WAS FINE! All my other fish in the tank, which include 4 tiny Clown Loaches are no worse for wear. I am as confused as a.....well I am just damn confused. Any ideas?

It often happens for no reason at all. How old are the Gouramis and how long have you had them?
Once the tiny CLs start to grow you realize that tank is far to small for them.

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Keith

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The gouramis were purchased aproximatly 5 months ago. The have been healthy and active and grew quite fast. The three of them were put into the tank together. My CL's are a temporary addition to my tank as I am upgrading to a 100 gallon tank in about a month. They are by far my favorite fish.

How large were the gouramis when you first got them? From my experience working at fish stores, one thing I have noticed with Dwarf Gouramis in particular is that they are always already full-grown when they come in (and sometimes they even appear quite old). This could have possibly been the case with your fish, though you did mention that it grew larger while in your care.

What are your nitrate levels? Dwarf Gouramis are somewhat sensitive to high nitrates. The only other thing I can think of is that possibly the other individuals were bullying this fish, and the stress from that finally did him in.

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i dont know, btu i do know that male gouramis are territorial and if triggered they could have duked it out resulting in this ones death... thats a really small tank to have three ticking time bombs... although they may seem mellow i have caught my two dwarf gourmi in my 29g tryin to fight, but the lesser always retreats to a vase cave that is in the tanks or to hde behind the rock or pplants... so provide lots of decorations as it could have been agression...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Another thing to remeber of course is that powder blues are from a very limited genetic line, often suffer scalation and skull size deformities and cant necessarily be expected to maintain organ health into maturity, a lot of them are of very poor quality, and ive seen specimens in shops that if I bred them, would not have survived a cull. Sometimes when the selective breeder gets involved, longevity is just not to be. There is no colour trait in fish that is not genetically linked to other physionomical features.