flesh disease! need help

[Spikor]

Hey, my Dwarf Gourami has all sorts of lesions and marks on him. He got beat up pretty bad by a bigger Gold Gourami about a month ago. his fins were very badly torn. i saw that he had a little mark near his nose that i assumed it was part of his brush with the gold gourami. He was removed from that tank and put into a new tank with a pearl gourami. they'd fight a little bit but not too bad. they almost never nip at eachother now. but while they were nipping i noticed some marks on his side. i assumed they were from getting nipped at since i had seen him get nipped on his sides. but they haven't healed and have gotten worse. now he has more marks on his side and one looks like it might stick out a bit. like his flesh is torn up a little bit. the nose wound has gotten worse and looks a bit like hole in the head, though it is hard to find decent pictures of what the wounds look like and it would seem odd in this little fish since it is mainly in big oscars, etc...

what should i do? are the other fish at risk? just keep treating with melafix? his fins regrew great so i stopped treating with melafix. does this sound bacterial? fungal? viral? agh!!

should i bring him to an LFS to diagnose? I couldn't get him to stay still long enough to take a picture with my digital camera.

thanks

 

[Kissofthegorami]

I would put him in a quarantine tank with stress coat, antibacterial medicine, and salt. I always warn people on here about mixing gouramis! Not a good idea. :-(

 

[Spikor]

I would put him in a quarantine tank with stress coat, antibacterial medicine, and salt. I always warn people on here about mixing gouramis! Not a good idea. :-(

ya, other sites say it is ok, but they say to put in several of each type to lessen the abuse. eitherway, i made a rookie mistake, but hey! at least i was a rookie!

 

[Harlock]

It sounds like it may be secondary infections from the original injuries. Make sure it's nothing like velvet to be on the safe side. Definitely QT the suspect fish to give him some alone time without having to defend himself in order to heal up faster with less stress. I'd skip the salt, it's another sterssor and foten recommended... for some reason that is likely tradition more than anything scientific. Antibacterials are a good idea. Antibiotics may work to fight the infection as well. I'm not a majot fan of stess coat but frequent water changes willhelp soothe the wounds, but forces you to retreat the Q-tank. I want to stress using a quarantine tank for this; when using meds that kill bacteria, you could force a main tank to cycle. It's easier to deal with that in a q-tank where you can toss the sponge and put another in your main tank to cycle. Good luck.

 

[Spikor]

thanks again. any recommendations on good antibiotics/bacterial stuff?

my Q tank is being 're-done'. i bought an Eclipse System 6 used which had gravel (nASTY NASTY) and no heater. so i just took out all that NASTY gravel and put in a reliable heater. once that tank is stable, i'll put him in. i just hope there isn't anything bad in the water (other diseases).

ahh the things we go through to keep a $3 fish around!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Try generc EM or Maracyn which is the same thing. I have never had this damage my bio. Treat the fish on its own as mentioned to reduce stress. I think Stress Coat belongs only in a toilet and would not use it.