The Gourami isn't a difficult fish to keep. You should look at your water parameters though. Do you know them? If your tank isn't cycled and you have any ammonia or nitrites, that may be what is killing your fish.
Sorry about your loss . I wouldn't give up on that fish, if you like them. You need to understand better what the problem is. If you fish did get injured, and the water quality is not good,that would also be the cause of death, possibly.

Gwen

 

I have the test strips and according to them everythings fine but I'm thinking their not very accurate. I was doing 20% water changes a few times a week for a few weeks. The water was pretty cloudy so I spoke to a lady at the LPS and she said that was WAY too much. I should only be doing a 20% water change once a month. She said when I change the water I'm removing some of the good bacteria and that whats causing the cloudiness.

When I look at some of the posts on here though people are doing bi-weekly water changes so I don't know who to believe.

 

A couple things, petstore people usually know nothing. If your tank isn't cycled you need to do water changes daily if necessary, if ammonia or nitrites are present. Good bacteria isn't really in the water, it's stays in the filter media, and on things in the aquarium. Also, test strips are pretty inaccurate. Get the API liquid test kit for ammonia and nitrites first. You'll need it for nitrates too at some time soon.
Getting started can get pretty pricey. Second, you need to use a good water conditioner such as Prime (it's great). It can detoxifiy for 24 hours any ammonia, nitrites or nitrates (if they are too high) which you probably don't have, and with weekly 50% water changes, shouldn't have if you aren't overfeeding etc). Nitrates is not you problem at this point, I'm sure.
Let me know how it's going. There is lots of good information on this site for cycling. Many people learn the hard way by losing fish.

Gwen

 

Which species of gourami? Some are more demanding than others. What fish are with it? And what size tank?

Gwen is correct, sadly many employees in fish stores, esp chain stores, know little about the hobby. Water changes are both a prevention and a cure for many problems, and are far safer than using chemicals or other treatments. A weekly partial water change is frankly essential in most aquaria, since we all tend to have more fish than nature can support in the small confines of the tank without water changes. And when the water is toxic with ammonia, nitrite or high nitrates, daily changes are essential to avoid serious damage to fish.

On the cloudiness, more water changes can worsen it in some cases, but not for the reason the store person gave. You can read about bacterial blooms as this is called here:
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/freshwater-articles/bacteria-freshwater-aquarium-74891/

Cloudiness is unsightly but not usually harmful, and certainly far less a problem than ammonia or nitrite.

Byron.

 

I'll just add there is no way most people on this forum would do a 20% a month. Most of us do 20-50% per week.