Sigh. My beautiful big mustard gas crowntail female betta. I named her Meg cause she was MG (mustard gas). I bought her and she was shipped all the way from Thailand, which wasn't cheap. She was so spunky and healthy, swimming around happily in my 20 gallon.
Then I introduced some dwarf gouramis, and one of them suddenly died. Then Meg started acting very stressed out, with the stress stripes and not swimming around as much. I knew something was wrong, but aside from her behavior she didn't look sick. I isolated her to my 5.5g and she died there 2 days later.
I suspect now that that one dwarf gourami had dwarf gourami disease, which is a virus. I know that sounds silly, and I'm not sure if you've all heard about it, because it seems to be a relatively new problem in DGs. Anyway, I've heard from some people who have lost gouramis to the virus that they also lost a betta soon after. A few people think that because bettas are labyrinth fish in the gourami family, they can also contract the virus, and this makes sense in my case, because neither she nor the gourami showed actual symptoms before they died, which is consistent with the nature of the virus.
Moral of the story, if you buy dwarf gouramis, buy them from a local breeder who can prove they're healthy. Or else don't put your precious betta in with them until you've had them for at least 3-6 months :(
You are missed Meg, your little inquisitive eyes and perfect yellow spiky tail were everyone's favorite part of the tank.
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