Gourami problem(?)

[Wishful]

One of our powder blue dwarf gourami has a 4-5" pale translucent strand about the thickness of a human hair trailing from his anus. Any idea what this is? It's nothing like their normal feces and doesn't match up with any description of parasite we can find.

[Wishful]

Okay, some web sleuthing yeilds the likelihood of internal parasites. Found
some vague suggestions for treatment. I'm heading off to buy a small hospital tank, hopefully he won't be too obnoxious about being caught.
Would still appreciate any advice.

[jennypenny]

Sorry I do ot have ay good advice for you, but what you have done so far sounds like a good plan.

[dreamweaver219]

so what your doing sounds goodso far.but look reeeeeaaalllyyy closely at your gourami.do you see and holes on him,like on his head? they look real neatly shaped,like someone poked it in the head with a sewing needle?I think to 2 on the nose area should be there, but check for others.I'm only suguesting this because i just had the same problem and am now dealing with it with my 2 dwarf gouramis.Its suposed to be common iiin this type of fish as well.If there are no holes....look real close for other things that maybe strange or different.
Gl, i hope you find the problem.


Also, i have read that they will do this......hair poop...when stressed.But, i dont know.

[Wishful]

Some of my fish had been "flashing" a bit, so I'd inspected all of them recently (cory, danio, gourami). No holes, dark spots, no raised or missing scales, no torn fins or fins with clear spots or red streaks.

The affected gourami is the subordinate male in the tank, I seldomly see him eat as he doesn't come forward with other other fish but his body shape looks good when comparing it to the other gourami who's a glutton.
I have been worried about his stress levels as he spends a good bit of his time hiding, lately up by the water return alot, and he commonly has his fins clamped.

Annoying, the local stores only carry meds for ich/fin rot and external parasites, nothing for internal and nothing matching the meds I found suggested (metronidazole and praziquantel). Partner's setting up the quarantine tank with water from the original tank to minimize shock and I've got some plastic floating plants to try and combat stress. Meanwhile I'll be looking up more info on meds and calling around to find out who might carry them. Argh.

[dreamweaver219]

ok, sounds good so far.i think he may just be stressed,but it is possible that some type of illness may be just showing it's first vivible signs.Keep him in his new space and see if things change.
I also had that problem as well,when i first got mine.I was going to move both of my gouramis to a 10g,because i was affraid my tetras were too wild.But eneded up only moving one,on farther inspection, i noticed that one gourami was not adjusting as well as the other.One was holding his own in the tetra tank and the other stayed hidden he was also being bullied by the more dominate gourami.So, i only moved the wimpy one,lol.Now, he is fine and dandy in his new tank, no stress, no stringy poop.Although,we are now dealing with hole in the head.This paticular one doesnt really seem to have it,but is being treated anyways because he had been in the same tank as the one that does have it.
Anywho, i wish you gl on finding the problem.I am hoping that it is just as simple as a case of stress.

[Wishful]

I LOVE great fish stores. PetCo/Petsmart didn't carry the meds I wanted or even know what they were. One tried to tell me the weird poop was snail eggs! Yeah, like my snails crawled up my gourami's butt to breed!

LFS knew what I needed as soon as I described the problem, had it in stock, walked me thru the treatment questions I had, verified it wouldn't be a problem for any of my other tank inhabitants, etc.

While I'm also treating the main tank, I'm keeping the subordinate Gour. in his 2 1/2 gal hospital tank to keep a closer eye on him. It's also a chance to feed him up and de-stress him a bit. The tank's 3/4 wrapped in blackout cloth and I've got an artificial plant floating over 80% of the water surface.
An airstone to keep the water moving and I'll be water testing 2x day.

[dreamweaver219]

ok,great job.Am glad you found the med.s have been looking online to find a place that sold those items.I also had a hard time finding what i needed..lol..same thing, went down the street to my tiny little lfs and ..bam, what i needed right there on the shelf....go figure.

[Web Gazelle]

What you described sounds like something I have treated and if you got anything with metronidazole then you got the right stuff. I use something called General Cure. It has worked for me when I saw the white stuff you described and my fish was hiding most of the time.

[Wishful]

Metronidazole is exactly what I ended up getting. Since we always have a pill splitter around for cat and human meds, it was pretty easy to break down to the size I needed for the quarantine tank. The affected gourami seems pretty happy to be in the hospital tank as well, so hopefully the reduction in stress from being chased by my other gourami (what a mistake THAT was!) will help him recover as well. He's been quite comical posing in the tiny tank, spreading his fins as far open as possible and cruising his new undisputed territory.

[Wishful]

Gourami Update:

The affected gourami died this evening. I did a careful post-mortum and I think he was simply at too advanced a stage to have saved. His anal vent was inflamed and red, the bloating was increased and included his entire abdomen, he hadn't visibly eaten any of the food he was offered. The good news is his gills looked clean, no signs of any disease or injury on his scales or fins, so it looks like probably an isolated internal problem.

My other gourami is eating and swimming well, no sign of illness at all.
None of the other fish are showing any sign of illness either.

I'll go ahead and do the second dose of meds on the tank as a preventative, and now I know more about how the symptoms present. Still sucks to lose a fish. :(