# sudden gourami death...



## dorabaker (Jul 3, 2010)

I just went to feed my fish and found my beautiful golden gourami, buttercup, who I've had for 2 years, floating on the top of the water dead  yesterday she was swimming around perfectly happily, and she has never shown any signs of illness in her life. even dead, she still looks like the healthiest fish I've ever seen.
I tested the pH and it was quite acid, which it also was last time I tested it about a week ago. This is unusual for my tank, as it's been set up for about eighteen months and the whole time has remained at a very stable pH of 7. I'm guessing the addition of a couple of peppered corys recently might have added to the bioload and lowered the pH. I'm doing a water change tomorrow and I'll make sure I change a large percentage of the water.

As to the cause of the fish's death...if anyone has any ideas why it might have happened, please tell me! my theory is that her growth was stunted. I think I remember somebody telling me that stunting can cause sudden unexplained death. I'm well aware that she was rather a large species of fish to be keeping in a 15 gallon tank, so I'm going to guess that stunting was the cause of her death, and I have to say, considering half of her early life was spent in a 6 gallon tank, she has lived quite a while. rip buttercup.

anyway, if all goes well with my tank, any suggestions about some nice 'feature fish' I could get to replace the gourami? something more appropriate for a 15 gallon than buttercup was?


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