I just found my dwarf gourami dead in my 5.5g. 
I found him sorta wedged at the surface between the tank and heater. At first glance I thought he was just chilling there, until I checked on him. He had "bruises" on his sides and dark purple marks on the top of his head, none of which were there when I left. Now, I could tell he wasn't that comfortable the past week. He was very lethargic and didn't eat flakes. He mostly stayed near the bottom picking at shrimp pellets and algae tablets for my pygmy cories.
I had a dwarf gourami and 4 pygmy cories and have been doing weekly water changes (25-30%). Gonna get my water tested tomorrow at lfs (i don't have a test kit sadly) and see where my parameters are at. Hopefully it wasn't because of ammonia or nitrite buildup. If it is and they're low, I might try a fancy tail guppy or something else small. The cories are really small and seem healthy. They always pick at the shrimp pellets or algae tablets, but I need something to cover the mid/upper area of the tank. Any suggestions? A betta will sort of be a last resort, because I don't want one that will end up being aggressive to my cories. I started with just the dwarf gourami and said I wouldn't go for the pygmies after asking here, but couldn't resist. >_< They were just too cute, but I'm really sad I lost the gourami.
On a totally different topic, I forsee a big snail outbreak coming in my tank. Every day I see new white specs or tiny snails and I'm crushing as many of them as I can. It started with only 1 hitchhiker snail and I thought it'd be fine if I left it alone. Now I already have at least 8 fairly large snails with baby ones allover the place. Gonna have to try the lettuce trick soon when it gets out of hand. o.0
I found him sorta wedged at the surface between the tank and heater. At first glance I thought he was just chilling there, until I checked on him. He had "bruises" on his sides and dark purple marks on the top of his head, none of which were there when I left. Now, I could tell he wasn't that comfortable the past week. He was very lethargic and didn't eat flakes. He mostly stayed near the bottom picking at shrimp pellets and algae tablets for my pygmy cories.I had a dwarf gourami and 4 pygmy cories and have been doing weekly water changes (25-30%). Gonna get my water tested tomorrow at lfs (i don't have a test kit sadly) and see where my parameters are at. Hopefully it wasn't because of ammonia or nitrite buildup. If it is and they're low, I might try a fancy tail guppy or something else small. The cories are really small and seem healthy. They always pick at the shrimp pellets or algae tablets, but I need something to cover the mid/upper area of the tank. Any suggestions? A betta will sort of be a last resort, because I don't want one that will end up being aggressive to my cories. I started with just the dwarf gourami and said I wouldn't go for the pygmies after asking here, but couldn't resist. >_< They were just too cute, but I'm really sad I lost the gourami.
On a totally different topic, I forsee a big snail outbreak coming in my tank.
Every day I see new white specs or tiny snails and I'm crushing as many of them as I can. It started with only 1 hitchhiker snail and I thought it'd be fine if I left it alone. Now I already have at least 8 fairly large snails with baby ones allover the place. Gonna have to try the lettuce trick soon when it gets out of hand. o.0
