Fish died, what to do about stocking

[beastie]

I am very saddened cause one of my quite recently purchased honey gourami (five weeks) died unexpectedly. I noticed paler color, weird swimming patterns, lying on the ground, on the surface leaves, bending. Water change didn't help, was dead two days within symptoms. Until then good behavior, eager feeding, no issues. No idea, I might have changed water to too cold, the air temp difference could have been too much (tank is 25, air is 20 on the room, cover glass ofcourse)

This presents a question what to do with the tank. It has 4 tylomelania adults snails and 6 babies and the other leftover honey gourami ( i bought a most likely pair, now have most likely male left, too young to say for sure )

I could try to get another gourami, but they are not often sold here and it took me a while to get the previous one. I would most likely have to wait for the present one to sex first. I could turn this into a community tank, maybe get a group of chilli rasboras. Or i could try to move this gourami to my south american tank, same temp, not too large flow. But it has in 360 l 9 marthae hatchetfish, 20 rummynose tetras, 30 ember tetras, 10 sterbai corydoras, 5 bolivian rams and two bamboo shrimp (that i might be worried about w a gourami )

[Fish Folk]

Well, there are some commonly shared pieces of advice:

After an unexpected death, test water parameters, eliminate old food… change water (20-30%)… carefully watch remaining stock for any signs of illness… do not add new fish or move fish out for a solid month… if a clear cause manifests warranting medication then dose as prescribed…

But honestly many aquarists risk shortcuts. 

[BlueLineAquaticsSC]

I’ve kept honey gourami with Bolivian rams and similar schooling fish without issue, I doubt it would bother the bamboo shrimp (although I wouldn’t be surprised if the rams did)

Edited April 15, 2023 by BlueLineAquaticsSC

[nabokovfan87]

I would expect the bamboo shrimp to be up in the flow and the rams below on the substrate. I don't think rams would really bother them. Depending on the ram species, they can be pretty mild mannered.

[beastie]

I wouldn't want to do any changes right away. I did a 50% water change day before the fish died, will do another one in few days and keep an eye on the remaining fish for some time.

The bolivian rams sometimes are curious about the bamboo shrimp if it goes foraging, which I try to prevent by feeding well. But they are nice, watching, not touching. The tank has 60 cm height and the shrimp hang out right in the middle, where i positioned the filter flow to a plant. They should be well off from the b-rams and the honey gourami territories. I am not even worried about the hatchetfish, since i only have six due to their jumping and they hang out as a tight knit group in one place and the surface is plenty big. However, what scares me is, i would be tempted to get few more gourami, like four, to see their natural group behavior, and that is just too overstocked in my tank (also breaking biotope, but i guess the shrimp already do that )

I spent weeks obsessing about what to put in the tank with the tylomelania snails to not bother them and i painstakingly found the honey gourami only for it to break down now 😞