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My sister's dwarf gourami was looking just fine last week, minus a small patch of redness on his side. It was centered top to bottom, but about 2/3 of the way back from nose to tail, if that makes sense.

It basically just looked like he'd rubbed up against something rough or had been nipped at by another fish in the tank. Looking closely, it rather looked like about four scales were either damaged or lost. The area was slightly raised.

Figuring it was just a scrape, I started a melafix regimine and thought nothing of it, besides keeping an eye on him, (I was taking care of my sister's tank while she was on vacation.) The gourami seemed fine, eating and swimming actively.

I joined my family this past weekend and we came back to find the gourami had another such welt and that the first one had a fuzzy whiteness to it. We treated the tank with Jungle Fungus Clear, but alas, too late... we had burial at sea this evening.

Tank occupants are five danios, three male mollies, and one ADF. Of any of the fish, I wouldn't be able to pick one as an aggressor... the danios pretty much keep any nipping amongst themselves, the mollies are lost in *cough* their activities and the ADF hides most of the time. Only thing I could think of was that if the gourami decided to get aggressive, someone might have snapped back at him, but no other fish shows any signs of injury.

There are some rough rocks in the tank, but there's never been an injury before... And the mollies swim around them frantically and at speeds approaching light speed, I swear it. They've never injured themselves.

I can have her check the water levels, but at last check, it was running smoothly, Amm 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10-20ish. *shrugs* I dunno, was just odd... he's a relatively new addition to the tank, but had settled in so nicely... it was kind of a shock to go from an active fish to pfft! gone...

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Kitten

Not having kept dwarf gourami for many years but I do know they can be very timid and rather shy little fellars.

And the mollies swim around them frantically and at speeds approaching light speed, I swear it. They've never injured themselves.

I think here lies your answer this could have easly caused the Gourami to get damaged against a sharp rock. It would take a decent knock to remove several scales and it could be from that which caused the origional infection and the stress done the rest.

Keith

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Maybe your danios decided to play pick on sister's dwarf gourami...especially if he was a timid little guy...

Or I suppose there is always the chance that he did like most of us do at times when trying to avoid others moving around too much, too fast, and rammed ourselves into the rock by accident (I don't know how many times I've walked into a wall, I know it wasn't there when I turned around)

You may never know what exactly happened to him

I'm sorry about the little guy though...Hope Twerp is going well at least, heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

Well, he started out as timid, but had gotten quite forward during the last few weeks. He was trying to lord it over the tank, but the fact is, no one else in the tank gave a flying fig... they're all in their own little worlds and don't care WHO thinks they rule the tank as long as it doesn't involved them.

Ah well... poor little thing.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Hi
I have had a very like problem and posted all over in different sites on the net and it was in this forum I received what I think is the only answer to the unexplained gourami deaths. If you read you will see there are a lot out there with very like symptoms. Anyway you will find the answer given me a little ways down the list titled

"Dwarf Gourami Sickness"

shammey