# Male Gourami Part Clamping Dorsal Fin



## Cheesewoman (Feb 23, 2018)

Hi Everyone,

So I've had my male and female (definitely a female, I'm in the UK...) dwarf gourami for over a week now in my new tank with 6 cherry barbs. The tank hasn't cycled yet, but the values are being checked every day and are as follows:

Ammonia: 0 - 0.5
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0

I believe they are fine considering I realise the tank is not yet cycled, I do a 30% water change every other day, and keep a very close eye on any irregularities in my fish/water/plants. Temp is 24-26 degrees Celcius.

It's a 48 litre (10 gallon) tank with plenty of live plants including floating plants (I realise some of you will say the tank is not big enough, but I've done my research and he seems quite happy with it).

The issue I am seeing is my male gourami has not been able/willing to raise his dorsal fin at the front, the rest of it goes up no problem but the front bit stays completely flat (see pictures).

He seems perfectly happy, eats, swims, pesters the female from time to time, constantly eating my live plants etc. He doesn't take any notice of the barbs and there's nobody else in there to bully him, he's the man of the tank!

So all that being said, what could possibly be wrong with his fin? Could he have damaged it somewhere along the way?

It wasn't like this when I first put him in the tank, it's only been for the last few days and I'm concerned that I'm missing something. None of the other fish are showing signs of any issues...


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## aussieJJDude (Jun 9, 2012)

IMO many species of gourami do better without males and females in the same tank, espeically in a 10g.... but your stocking issues aren't *that* much of a concern.

He looks rather skinny, have you noticed what his poop is like? Regardless, try feeding a broad range of high quality foods to put some size on him. 


Your research should of lead you to the nitrogen cycle and how important it is in the aquarium... and trace value is highly toxic, which could explain the clamped fin... the only way to remove it is to either perform regular water changes, use those bottle bacteria products that some like to use, plants - especially fast growing ones/floaters - or use some established media from another - healthy - aquarium....

Prime also helps 'remove' ammonia if under 1ppm for around 24 hours... so you could do that as well.

Going back to your stock, you would have a lot more success if you upped to a 20g (especially a long) as all the fish you currently have to better in larger tanks, particularly with the male/female combo, as a bigger tank allows both parties to stay away from eachother if needed.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk


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## Cheesewoman (Feb 23, 2018)

Thanks for the quick reply!

I know some people think the 10g tank is a little too small for the dwarf gouramis, but I did do a lot of research and they seem very happy together in there - they dance around together a little bit which is nice to watch, but there's never any aggression and really they don't bother each other at all for the most part.

It is a heavily planted tank, they have lots of floating plants/tall plants and carpeting/grass plants about the tank for plenty of hiding spots and coverage.

You're right I have been looking into the nitrogen cycle (I mentioned it in my original post as the tank cycle). I've been using filter boost, tapsafe and also ammonia remover just the last couple of days - the reading tonight for ammonia has come back as 0 (the previous reading was actually from yesterday), so it looks like it's working.

When he feeds his dorsal fin goes up all apart from the front part, so I don't think he's feeling unwell, just maybe it's stuck down a bit at the front? Could this happen if he somehow damaged it? He spends a lot of time at the back of the tank eating the plants and enjoying the bubbles... the female spends most of her time at the front of the tank.

I just saw him poop, doesn't seem to have any issues there, and he does seem to eat well. I feed them flakes, brine shrimp and blood worm, and the occasional bit of cucumber (blanched).

Any other ideas? Thanks again for your help


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## Cheesewoman (Feb 23, 2018)

So just to follow-up, I noticed that you'd said my male dwarf gourami was looking a bit thin, I hadn't realised this but looking back on older pictures of when I first got him I guess you're right! So I've started feeding them a bit more (they still eat it within 3 minutes) and all of a sudden his dorsal fin is going up all the way again! So it could've been that I wasn't feeding him enough, or it could just be that he's adjusted to the new tank or maybe the water condition is better, but he looks great now ?


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