Please look over my new Dwarf Gourami (and Neon)... normal?!

[NeonJulie]

These are the pics of my new fish, which I got on Saturday night. I have been concerned about this look of his face and front half of his body looking "dirty", not colored and not irridescant like the rest of him. I'm not sure, but it may be growing. To be honest, I've never looked real closely at any kind of gourami, and I can't tell if he's really got something, or if that's how he's supposed to look. Some of the pics below show something lighting up under the flash, like a turquoise color. Could it be Velvet?! He's not showing any other symptoms of illness that I can see... he eats and scavenges very well, spends a lot of time chasing his reflection, and he doesn't look like he's itchy or uncomfortable.

Also, any comments on the shape of his head? It looks awfully flat, boney, not round.

See the non-shiny greyish areas? (Like his belly?)
http://pic1.picturetrail.com/VOL1147/4181325/12572623/216778882.jpg

These are how the scales under his chin, with the same dirty greyish color look, under normal light, no flash.
http://pic1.picturetrail.com/VOL1147/4181325/12572623/216780946.jpg

This pic is blurry unfortunately, but it's his natural color without the flash, and you can really see that dark greyish patch on him, his belly, part of his cheek and head.
http://pic1.picturetrail.com/VOL1147/4181325/12572623/216780327.jpg

Here's a closeup with the flash. It lit up a bunch of specks... are they his natural coloring? ...or does he have Velvet, etc.
http://pic1.picturetrail.com/VOL1147/4181325/12572623/216781526.jpg

From the side:
http://pic1.picturetrail.com/VOL1147/4181325/12572623/216787217.jpg

Here's him doing what he usually does... all day long.. up, down, up down...
http://pic1.picturetrail.com/VOL1147/4181325/12572623/216776713.jpg



Here are some of the neons... they are all doing well, but one (I believe female?) came to us with a big red open sore area where her gill should be. She eats well, she's very smart and finds the food first, and doesn't get pecked more than she pecks back. But the thing has gotten larger, as she grows. It's not shrinking. I'm dosing the tank daily with just a slightly bit less than recommended dose. (1 tsp for my 12g when they recommend 1/10g.)

She is the one by the pot. You can see the sore is right behind her eye, the red area. None of the other neons have it. Instead they are usually that white area - her other cheek is also white, not red.
http://pic1.picturetrail.com/VOL1147/4181325/12572623/216778346.jpg


Thanks for any input, comments, and peace of mind! <3

[Star_Rider]

you haven't had the fish long..are they in quarantine?

I hope so..

keep the water pristine. and make sure the fish are getting a healthy diet..most fish when given clean water and good food adapt well to a new environment. this gives them a good start to healing. should they need it.

keep an eye on the neon..if fungus starts to take over you may need to medicate.

I have seen open wounds on fish heal with just clean water and good food..I did small daily water changes removing waste from the bottom of the tank.

[NeonJulie]

I have done 4 water changes since Saturday... I was overfeeding to compensate for their lack of poor feeding habits. The water's pretty prestine. I've even had a perfectly stable 7.0 pH since I got them. He's growing and he's gotten about twice as much color as he started with.

No they are not in quarantine... that's why I drove an hour away to get them from a clean LFS, and they haven't reported any issues. I could get him in to quarantine if I had to, but it's just 4 gallons.


I am feeding them:
http://www.petco.com/Shop/Product.aspx?R=3202&Nav=1&N=0&Ntt=tetramin+crisp&sku=941280&familyID=12787&

They absolutely love the stuff.

I've tried to give them brine shrimp (freeze dried), and blood worms (freeze dried) but they don't end up finding and eating too much of it really. Hopefully they'll get better at recognizing it at food.

I also was giving them some slow sinking pellets with vitamins in it, but they didn't seem to grab on to that as much as the Tetramin. Hopefully they'll expand their diet. (It has only been a few days, and I feel right now, feeding is finally a raging success!)

[Star_Rider]

hang in there.

have you tried frozen bloodworms?? if you can find the midge larvae try them ..the midge larvae tend to be smaller. you can spike it with vitamins if they go for it..
also try mixing the flake with the other and see if that works..if they go into a frenzy ..sometimes they accidentally pick up the other and figure out..hey..this is food...LOL

[NeonJulie]

This morning I noticed a yellow patch on the side of the gourami. Still doesn't appear to be any discomfort to the fish, but I would hope I could diagnose and treat and abnormalities before he begins to suffer.

If I suspect something like Velvet, where the normal treatment starts with a warmer temperature and some aquarium salt, is there any harm in beginning a treatment? Will starting to increase the temperature and adding some dissolved salt cause any problems, just for a precautionary measure?

Should I get the smaller quarantine tank going? The only problem is, since the tank just cycled, I haven't even put in the QT tank filter media to absorb the bacteria. Is there some other way I could cycle it if I had to?


Also, while diet has come up, no one has answered whether he looks healthy and fine, or whether he may be headed down the road to illness!!! I sure hope I don't have to wait until he's floating sideways for someone to say "yeah well he DID look sickly two weeks ago! How come you didn't do x, y, z?"