laritheloud

Hi @Tiffany.hankinson! The two fish in the top photo are sunset thicklipped gouramis (trichogaster labiosa). They both look female right now, but they might be too young to sex. Of the two, the one on the right is most likely to become a male as it grows, but it's not yet a guarantee. A male will develop an elongated, pointed dorsal fin and darken to a rusty/ruddy orange color, while a female will keep the rounded fins and marmalade-orange color. Your bottom photo is a male gold-type honey gourami (trichogaster chuna). You might be able to get away with cohabitating them, but I would keep an eye out for bullying. He will stay smaller than the other two fish. The thicklips will grow to 3 to 4 inches.

I'm personally not a fan of aquariumscience.org for many, many reasons, but there's a lot of information out there about dwarf gourami iridovirus and how prevalent/virulent it is. I'm so sorry that it seems like he succumbed to the virus. 😞 I was really worried that was the case. Please know there was nothing you really could have done even with meds -- it's not your fault at all. The swordtail may have passed of unrelated cause but it's good to cover your bases as @Colu suggested. I'd be hesitant to add more gouramis to the tank for awhile after a presumptive case of DGIV. It's so sad what selective line breeding has done to this beautiful fish... If you do decide to try gouramis again in the distant future, I want to steer you towards hardier species. Trichogaster Labiosa (thick-lipped gouramis) are absolutely delightful, grow to about the same size as dwarf gouramis, and they are hardy and healthy. Honey Gouramis are super peaceful and smaller. Croaking Gouramis and Sparkling Gouramis are some more options. For bigger "peaceful" gouramis, try Pearl Gouramis. Please take care and I hope the rest of your tank survives with no more problems.

I'm getting a school of 10 to try! Thank you so much for your input. I'm excited to give them a go.

Oh good, I think I'm just going to go ahead and try them. I don't mind if they're not a tight schooler. My Diamond Tetras behave more like shoalers most of the time and I think they're gorgeous!

RIGHT??? Those are males in breeding coloration. Supposedly they are not fin-nippy but I'm still worried I'm taking a risk.

I just think they're neat. Sources say they top out at 2.5 to 3 inches... Just hoping they're not an obnoxious fish to their tankmates like tiger barbs.

I love my amanos! They were super shy when they were small. I had purchased 6 to go into my 29 gallon, drip acclimated, and dropped them in... then didn't see them for over a month. One day they popped out full grown and now they're brazen little bandits. They're so much fun to watch! Always busy little creatures picking through the plants and the substrate, and they're definitely not afraid of the fish in the tank.

I see this as an attempt to protect endangered/threatened species and keep exotic animals from being poached and/or traded, then released into inappropriate habitats. Maybe the wording isn't the best, but I wonder how that angle will affect implementation of the bill as written... if it passes into law. I said this in another thread, but like @Biotope Biologist, I suspect this will affect the fish trade far less than it sounds.

The timeline is right -- I assume this all started showing up recently. I'm so sorry! I completely understand how special these fish are. 😭 My thicklipped gouramis are like that for me. So sweet, so interactive. I love their little feelers and how they come to say hello to me at the front of the tank every morning and beg for food. It isn't hopeless but it can be really challenging to turn a fish around sometimes, even for people with a well-equipped fish medicine cabinet. I've heard (don't quote me) that it's a sign of kidney failure to get this kind of bloating and fluid buildup. It's good to be prepared, but don't give up hope. If he's still eating, I would try feeding him medication to get that in him and working on him ASAP. He doesn't appear to be pineconing yet and that's a good sign. He hasn't ruptured or developed any sores, which is something to watch for in the coming days. You're doing all you can for him and fish illness can sometimes be very difficult to treat. Give him comfort, love, and safe, clean water, and observe him while you wait to get your hands on meds. I'm hoping for the best.

I lived in Pittsburgh for five years for school! I do miss it sometimes! Stay warm ❤️

Hey everyone! Because I'll be moving my 6 remaining pseudomugil signifers to my 20 gallon tank, I'm looking into getting either another schooling fish for the 50 gallon or skipping the schoolers altogether and trying some more peaceful cichlids (blue acaras, festivums, or keyholes). My current permanent inhabitants are a group of 4 thicklipped gouramis, a group of 4 synodontis lucipinnis, and a bunch of grown/baby rabbit snails. I have a red bristlenose in quarantine that'll go in next, and that's it for now. I know barbs in general have the reputation of being fin nippers, and I'm reading conflicting information over whether black rubies will be okay with gouramis in a big enough school (I was thinking 8 to 10 of them). What do you think? Any alternative suggestions? I'm having great difficulty feeling decisive about it, since I know cichlids especially can live a long time and I want to make the "right" decision. It doesn't help that my daughter and son have been sick with a cold all week and it's giving me a bit of cabin fever. 🤣 Thanks for all your help!

You have a powder blue dwarf gourami and he looks like a bloated male. I'm so sorry you're dealing with this! It's always sad to see a fish suffer under your care. I want to start out by saying this is likely nothing at all that you have done wrong. Dwarf Gouramis tend to be a little genetically weak and prone to illness these days, which is really sad and rarely (if ever) the fault of the fishkeeper. @xXInkedPhoenixX has given you excellent treatment advice. He looks to be suffering with an internal infection. Depending on the illness your dwarf gourami is suffering from, it's really a 50/50 whether it'll affect your other fish at all. There's a chance it is viral (Dwarf Gourami Iridovirus; if it is iridovirus, he will worsen very quickly, I'm sorry to say), in which case, he is likely the only fish that will be affected. I would attempt to isolate him and treat him on his own first as the other fish may not develop symptoms at all. If you are able to successfully treat him, then I would move on to treating the other fish he lives with. I really hope for the best outcome for your beautiful boy. Gouramis of all kinds are some of my favorite fish. When did you purchase him, by the way? Was it recently?

Completely agree with @Greg Stewart. I have a betta in with a mystery snail and some kuhli loaches, and I made sure to add the betta last. I think you're likely to have more success if the betta is added last and the fish in with him doesn't resemble him at all. I'm almost certain my betta doesn't even acknowledge the kuhli loaches as real fish. They just look like weird squiggly worms to him, lol.

WCMMs like cooler water (70 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit/"room temp") and bettas need 78 to 80 degree water, so I'd say that's an incompatibility right there.

Interesting that they're taking a 'white list' approach instead of a 'black list.' I do believe this is actually a good thing for the herp community to restrict the capture and trade of wild caught species from their natural habitats. It's usually better to buy captive-bred over wild-caught when it comes to reptiles and amphibians. Not so sure about fish. A lot of the species that are commonly wild caught and imported are very likely to be whitelisted. I get the feeling this is less restrictive than it sounds at first blush.

I have an ulvaceous in my tank but it went dormant. Boo. I think they are well-made for low-tech set ups and my mistake, actually, was putting it in a high-tech setup. It grew hard and fast -- up to 6 to 12 inches in a DAY -- and I was trimming flower stalks left and right. Still went dormant. I'm leaving it in the tank and putting root tabs around it every few weeks hoping it'll wake up again soon. They are beautiful plants, though, and I think you will love yours.

Another vote for getting an Inkbird to give you peace of mind. I have them on all of my tanks. ETA: Honestly, this should be standard 'best practices' like with reptiles. Reptiles usually require a thermostat to control basking temps. Why not fish?

She's definitely female @Nabaliss! Generally the sweet-tempered ones that potter around the tank nibbling on plants/roots for microfauna are female. She also has the belly and the paler color of females, and I believe I see orange at the top rim of her dorsal fin. What a cutie! Your new batch appears to be all female, too. You might have one male but I'm not 100% sure from the in-bag photos -- all the orange on the top fins makes me think all female. You'll have a very peaceful tank with all ladies and no male to harass them. 🤣 Congrats on filling out your honey gourami group!

Pink Flamingo is a very slow, small grower for me. It looks perfectly healthy and has the pink color, but growth lags noticeably behind my other crypts. I have a 55 gallon high tech tank for reference and make sure it gets unobstructed light and root tabs in inert sand substrate.

If your water isn't hard, make sure you add enough mineral content for your mollies to thrive. They like liquid rock!

Hi there! It's pretty normal for honey gouramis to not notice when it's feeding time until they settle for a few days. If your honey gouramis are swimming around the tank, being active, and pecking at the decor/plants in your 20 gallon, then don't be concerned yet. If you want to try adding some tasty foods to their diets, my honeys really love Fluval Bug Bites pellets in the really tiny size (for small fish). They also love the Xtreme Aquatics Krill Flakes, Community Crave Flakes, and Nano pellets. You can't go wrong with frozen daphnia or bloodworms for a treat, either. I find above all that being consistent with your feeding routines will get them eager and ready to eat before long. 🙂 They'll figure it out, don't worry. BUT...if you have male honey gouramis, they might take a bit longer to figure out the food routine. Females tend to be a little more food-motivated and will catch on quicker.

I go to Aquarium Center most frequently as my LFS for their huge selection. Their tanks are also a good price! I'm there pretty often, once every couple of weeks. Almost all of my fish stock is from them. I'm originally from Township but I moved down to Salem County after Pittsburgh and a brief stint in Washington DC.

Lived in Pittsburgh for school for 5 years. No one out there knew how to make a proper cheesesteak, pizza, or hoagie. It was like heaven to get a real Italian hoagie again from my favorite joint. 100% Philly area/South Jersey through and through.

FWIW there's only a few stem plants I've been able to grow well. So many of them have petered out and failed for me no matter what I tried. Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus and Hygrophila Polysperma (along with Corymbosa) do well for me, and so does pearl weed. still looking for other magic stem plants. Rooted plants all seem to fare much better in my water.

Hi @zayackylepga! I'm in South Jersey, too. I water change weekly because it's just what I'm accustomed to doing, and it makes me feel more at ease. I like 'resetting' the fertilizers and organics once per week and starting fresh, and my tanks don't seem to be suffering for it. The water in my municipality is from the deep well aquifers, but we draw from a couple of different ones throughout the year; currently, we have a 'happy' mix of highly alkaline, low general hardness water. I've been adding wondershells to my tanks to maintain a mid level of hardness (around 6 to 7 dgh) until we switch back to harder water later in the year. My fish have been doing well with this system. I don't think it's totally necessary to top off with RO water unless there's something in your municipality's water system that really worries you.