dwarf gourami should fish shops be supporting

After loosing two dwarf gourami for no apparent reason i have done a lot of reading on the subject!

"Dwarf Gourami Iridovirus (DGIV)
The quality of the dwarf gouramis in the trade has steadily declined for years, with batches of fish showing significantly higher levels of mortality than 10 years ago. Historically, retailers and aquarists have blamed bacterial infections, such as fish tuberculosis (Mycobacterium marinum). In recent years, though, attention has focused on a virus known as dwarf gourami iridovirus or DGIV.

Dwarf gourami iridovirus is apparently specific to the dwarf gourami (Colisa lalia), including the various fancy varieties of the species, such as neon gouramis and sunset gouramis. Infected fish develop a variety of symptoms, including loss of color, decrease in activity and appetite, the appearance of sores and lesions on the body, abdominal swelling and finally death. This fish disease is highly contagious, completely untreatable and invariably fatal.

Dwarf gourami iridovirus is apparently very common. One recent study of fish exported from Singapore found that 22 percent of all dwarf gouramis carried the virus. Aquarists should never purchase dwarf gouramis from fish aquariums containing fish exhibiting symptoms consistent with the dwarf gourami iridovirus, and all new fish should be quarantined for at least six weeks prior to being placed in the main fish aquarium.

For most aquarists, my best advice is to keep the hardier alternatives to dwarf gouramis. The thick-lipped gourami (Colisa labiosa) and the banded gourami (Colisa fasciatus) are both similar in size, temperament and coloration and make excellent alternatives." this is a extract from an artical writen by By Neale Monks, Ph.D.

My question is why lfs still supply dwarf gourami's for sale and encourage this practise in supplying substandard live stock if the shops refused to supply them then maybe the fish breeders would be forced to fix the problem if they can before it spreads to the wild population? Not to mention the disappointment and anxiety it causes people new to the hobby!

any opinions please discuss

most decent lfs's should quarantine their fish before selling onto the public which should negate problems but then when fish are sold and often put into different conditions to those they where originally kept in and then different to what they where quarentined in a fish may become stressed which may bring on latent problems such as inherent diseases, the fact is some people would claim dwarf gourami's are bullet proof others will say they are delicate it depends on the fish and the fishkeepers and also water conditions and other fish in the community, i for one have kept successfully many demanding wild fish yet for love nor money can i keep a german blue ram alive so now i dont bother with this species.

it is commended that you have done this research but most common community fish these days are bred on a mass scale and its true they may not be as strong as their wild counterparts but other species which are difficult to maintain as wild fish are easier once a few generations of captive bred fish are for sale. it would wipe out wild stocks to constantly import from the wild, yet if you can cross captive bred and wild fish you will generally be rewarded with a good fish so as i fishkeeper this is what i try to do myself.

you cannot blame lfs's as these maybe the only fish they can source, the problem i think lies in some breeders wrecklessly line breeding. it is the case that good breeders and suppliers will always prosper but will never be able to supply fish as cheap as mass producers so lfs's are caught between a rock and a hard place here.

Would you pay over twice the amount for a dwarf gourami if it was a stronger less line bred stock or would like most people go for a fish that looks the same but is cheaper? i know when it comes to my fish i dont mind paying extra for quality but shops have rent rates wages etc to pay and a lot would not survive just catering for people like me.

My only advice if you really want this species would be go to some of our sponsors and ask them to source good wild or F1 fish of this species for yourself and they will do their best to get you them, they may cost a little more be a little more delicate to acclimatise but you will be rewarded for you efforts

Also just a side note, you should always have a quarantine tank for new fish for just the reason as stated in the article you posted above, it is a worthwhile investment in the long run

just my 2 cents
Seamus

Hi Seamus thanks for your 2cents worth, you make good points and i will try and hunt down an f1 and see how i get on, As i live in athlone i was limited to few lfs recently though i have traveled east to get better selection and in my opinion better quality stock. As for spending more for better quality its a false economy
as i have learned as I'm on my third fish at a cost of around €30 so really it makes sense, to buy the best available.
Just on a side note, much to my partners amusement i bought 2 pices of wine wood last week happy out boiling them away to remove the tannins,she found the recept and is still slagging me for paying €40 for as she says "2 sticks" lol so cost and spending and this hobby can only be understood by those who have the bug.
If any of the sponcers see this post can you pm me is you can supply a wild caught dwarf gourami?
regards
jim

Unfortunately, the dwarf gourami has been relegated to the level of "Beginner Fish".

I personally do not understand why it is deemed a "beginners fish", but that is how things have turned.

With that label, there comes a whole hosts of attitudes towards it.

The normal quarantine period that is affordable or given by LFSs is not really long enough to detect indicence of this (or many other) diseases.

But, then again, what would a shop do after such quarantine period if the stock showed signs of the problem?....treatment is not likely, so the shop would be left having to either plonk them for sale or destroy the lot.

As for getting W/C dwarfs???.....not too likely (but never say never).

As for the quality of some other related gouramis......they are also turning into toss.
C. labiosa look (in general) a load of rubbish and nothing like they should be in most cases.

Picking up on one point in Sheag's post......if there is Line-Breeding, then that by definition should not be wreckless as Line-Breeding should mean only selecting the best parents to strengthen a strain.
The problem is simply wreckless breeding.

Few people take on the work of putting the small amount of effort into breeding these fish, maybe if that were not the case then there would better fish available (but who knows if they too are wrecklessly breeding them).

In some respects, the buyers contribute to the mess.

ian

I know that AquaPaws won't stock Dwarf Gouramis due to Dwarf gourami iridovirus