I lost a honey gourami... literally.

[RachelElizabeth]

What could have killed my honey gourami with NO physical symptoms of disease? And how bad is it that I can't find her to remove her?

Sorry for the long story, but I recently added 3 honey gourami's to my 75 gallon after a quarantine. I had 2 females and 1 male. For about a week, all 3 of them looked fine, but then I noticed that one of the females was hiding and not moving around much. I didn't see any outward signs of disease, so I decided to just monitor the fish closely. The next evening when I got home, I noticed that she was laying on the gravel, barely moving and very little gill movement. Definitely not acting right, but she still looked healthy. No white spots, bacteria, fungus, parasites, bloating, nothing. The fins even looked perfect still. So I didn't know what could be wrong with her to know what to even treat with. Anyway, I was scurrying around trying to set up a hospital tank for her. I checked in several times, and she would maybe move slightly, but other than that looked the same. Finally I went to remove her from the big tank and she is just gone. I mean, I checked everywhere and this honey gourami is no where to be found. I have a lid and I checked the floor, so I don't think she jumped out. Only tank mates right now are the other 2 honey gourami's, a school of cherry barbs, and some snails. I don't think any of them could have eaten her so fast. I am assuming she has to be dead at this point, given how she was acting before I lost her. Now I don't know what to do. I don't want to totally tear the tank apart, but I don't want an ammonia spike either. I wish I knew what was wrong with her so I could be proactive with the other fish. 

Water Parameters:

• pH -> 6.8
• Nitrates -> 5-10 ppm
• Hardness -> very hard (maxes out the test strips)
• Nitrite -> 0 ppm
• Ammonia -> 0 ppm
• KH/Buffer -> I have a hard time reading this one, but it actually looks to be on the lower end of the color chart
• Water Temperature 78 degrees F

[CalmedByFish]

Baffling. If you look around the edges of the lid, is there even one little hole or slot that she could possibly have aimed herself through? 

 

[RachelElizabeth]

On 7/20/2021 at 8:38 PM, CalmedByFish said:

Baffling. If you look around the edges of the lid, is there even one little hole or slot that she could possibly have aimed herself through? 

 

Yes, there is an opening by the hob filter, so maybe she got out through there? I checked all over the floor and under/inside the stand, and have yet to find her. However, I do have cats. They never get on top of the tank, but if a fish ended up on the floor they might have had a snack... sounds crazy but it seems like a plausible explanation at this point. 

[laritheloud]

A few questions!

What strain of honey gouramis do you have? Are they gold, sunset, wild-type? This makes a difference because I have a 'sunset' honey gourami female that looks a lot like a wild-type and tends to blend in with my plants and tank decor when she settles down for a rest at night. She is very, very good at 'hiding' and can be difficult to find. She is our shyest and most reserved gourami of the three we have. FTR, I also have two golden honeys with her, and they stand out a lot more.

Second, did you treat the gouramis with anything in quarantine, or did you just observe? How long were they quarantined for?

EDIT: Was the sick gourami lying on her side or was she able to hold herself upright?

Edited July 21, 2021 by laritheloud

[RachelElizabeth]

I believe they are the gold variety (at least, that's what they were sold to me as). The male is a deep gold color, the females are a paler shade of yellow and they do have that dark horizontal line along the body. 

They were officially quarantined for two weeks (I am definitely feeling like this was way too short, but I'm learning). They were also the first additions to the tank, although I did work really hard on my fishless cycle for 2 months beforehand to make sure the water parameters were OK before I added any fish. I did not treat with any meds during quarantine. I have seen the Co-op med trio on Youtube videos, and I keep Ich-X on hand, but haven't used Maracyn or Paracleanse. I have a bit of an irrational fear of using meds and doing more harm than good. Working on getting over that...

Anyway, she was basically at an angle on the bottom. Like not laying flat on her side, but not fully upright either, if that makes sense. I wish I had a picture, but the fish is still missing.

[laritheloud]

On 7/20/2021 at 11:47 PM, RachelElizabeth said:

I believe they are the gold variety (at least, that's what they were sold to me as). The male is a deep gold color, the females are a paler shade of yellow and they do have that dark horizontal line along the body. 

They were officially quarantined for two weeks (I am definitely feeling like this was way too short, but I'm learning). They were also the first additions to the tank, although I did work really hard on my fishless cycle for 2 months beforehand to make sure the water parameters were OK before I added any fish. I did not treat with any meds during quarantine. I have seen the Co-op med trio on Youtube videos, and I keep Ich-X on hand, but haven't used Maracyn or Paracleanse. I have a bit of an irrational fear of using meds and doing more harm than good. Working on getting over that...

Anyway, she was basically at an angle on the bottom. Like not laying flat on her side, but not fully upright either, if that makes sense. I wish I had a picture, but the fish is still missing.

So just a quick story. I started out with two honey gouramis in quarantine, very very young. One of them was highly active and greeting me at the glass, the other was lethargic and would not eat. The fish would show some slight interest in food, take in a bite, spit it out, then sit on the bottom. For a full day the fish sat on the bottom, bending sideways, leaning, curling against the substrate. I tried to start treating with an anti-parasite med but the fish did not make it. It was clearly extremely unwell, wasn't eating, and laid on the substrate on its side. I went to pull it out of the tank (too young to sex, wasn't sure what it was) and it passed away. My best guess was some sort of internal parasite.

I did end up treating the remaining honey gourami with two rounds of API General Cure (Paracleanse works just as well) because they shared a tank at the store and in quarantine. At the end of the first round she passed a long and distressing-looking poop, and after that, she became even more active ever since. It took about a five weeks to get through the quarantine period before I felt like she was healthy enough to go in my display. She's grown into a beautiful young female gold gourami now. She's still smaller than my male and my sunset female, but she's doing very well! All of this to say I don't think it would hurt to treat your fish with Metroplex (Metronidazole......... or general cure/paracleanse).  

This is also in comparison to my honey sunset female, who is simply a shy and reserved fish. She will actively scavenge throughout most of the day, but at night she likes to rest on the substrate (for the first part of the night) and nestled in the floating plants (later in the night). She also did this in quarantine, so I think this is just something that helps her feel comfortable. My other two don't nestle themselves into hidey-holes to rest, but my male will rest on the substrate at night occasionally. When they rest, they are upright and usually still moving their pectoral fins and breathing normally.

I hope you'll find what happened to your missing honey. What a baffling mystery!