What's the deal with my dwarf gourami?

Question

Yesterday I recognized that one of my gouramis had some bulges on the sides of it's body right behind its gills.

Up until today I thought I had two male gouramis until someone explained that the males have a more distinguishable color while the females are plain. The reason I thought they were both males was because when I saw them at Petsmart, the tank they were in said that they were "Male Dwarf Gouramis". Go figure...

Any way, what do you think the problem could be? Does she have a disease or is she ready to breed with the male? If she is, can anyone who is familiar with breeding dwarf gouramis give me some tips on breeding them? Thanks to all that help me.

And to help you and me to see if it is a male or female and if she or he has a disease or is ready to breed, here a few pics:

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o33/rickyh08/Picture003.jpg

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o33/rickyh08/Picture008.jpg

Do you think it might be dropsy?

http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/dropsy/

Answer 1

I'm not sure I see a distinct problem with your female (the lone fish in Picture003). She does seem a bit larger for a heavy female, but that might be the only thing causing the problem. The male looks fine to me, I don't see a problem there at all.

Jon is absolutely correct, you would breed them just like breeding bettas. A 10 gallon tank with about 6" or water and a sponge filter will make a great breeding tank. Allow the male to build a bubble nest, add the female and remove her after they are done. Once the eggs hatch, remove the male and once the fry are swimming about, begin feeding with infusoria and white worms. That's it in a nutshell. For some more details, here's a link.

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/anabantids2/p/dwarfgourami.htm

Hope that helps and if you still have an questions feel free to email me.

MM

Answer 2

I think from that first picture, that looks bad and more like a disease. Female are round like that yes, but the typical roundness would be up higher like as if right behind the gills, and in that first picture you see the bloating lower like in the stomach region. A females enlargement would be up higher. I'm not sure what the problem might be, but I'm going to send this over to magicman and copperhead, who excel at fish illness and treatments.

Gourami, dwarves in particular too, are not live bearers so this wouldn't be a matter should that turn out to be a female, that shes impregnated. They are bubble nest builders like Betta. Basically for breeding them, use the Betta approach. House the female and male seperate, give them a high protien diet for about two weeks until the male begins to build a bubble nest and the female stores up eggs. Provide the female with cover as the male will attack anything that comes near his nest.

JV

Answer 3

Im not sure if im giving you the right advice. But my dwarf gourami had the SAME buldge, like a tumour growing at the side. Same size too. Which is seen in the 1st photo of yours. After 2 weeks of that buldge remaining there, my gourami started to lie on plants or sink to the corner and refused to eat. Then it only surfaced for air afew times a day. After another week or so, it died.

I hope you can take more pictures of the buldge and show it to others, so they can identify the disease and help you.

Good luck.