gourami with a hole in his side

M

morfin

AC Members
Sep 10, 2007
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New Zealand
Hi, have a gourami with a hole in his side. started out with two white patches, which just looked like scale damage from a fight. The one at the back has now become a hole. I have treated for 7 days with melafix but made no difference, initially because I thought this was a fight wound but I'm now wondering if it might not be something else? Anybody got any suggestions as to what you think it might be and treatment. is currently in a hospital tank with a black neon (who has been rescued from a friend and is just in quarantine), 25 litre, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5. Temp is 80F. Was in a 50 gallon community tank with odessa barbs, 2 angels (juveniles), lemon tetra's, bristlenose and panda corys. Established tank with ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10, temp 80F.

gourami1.jpg gourami2.jpg
 
Looks like the wound is infected. What food are you feeding right now? Widen the range so it can boost its immune system. Use Jungle Fungus Eliminator to treat the fish which has salt content in it. Salt should help in the healing process.
 
Thanks Lupin, at the moment he is being fed with tropical flake and tropical granules, should I add some blood worms to that to give him some protein? I'm doing alot of water changes for him at the moment to keep the water quality up and I'll go get some Jungle Fever today after work.
 
morfin said:
Thanks Lupin, at the moment he is being fed with tropical flake and tropical granules, should I add some blood worms to that to give him some protein? I'm doing alot of water changes for him at the moment to keep the water quality up and I'll go get some Jungle Fever today after work.
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I'd give him bloodworms once or twice a week only. What's the active ingredients of the Jungle Fever?
 
Along with what Lupin has said, it looks to me like an infected wound. What you don't want is for that to progress any further. I would keep the water pristine for him, even perhaps doing a daily 25% - its a nice small hospital tank so that's no big deal, and I would dose the tank with Melafix & Pimafix as preventatives, and a small amount of aquarium salt. That's a nice non-aggressive approach which, given that he is presently otherwise healthy, should work out well.
 
Thanks for that, I've put the salt and melafix in and will get some primafix tomorrow, water changes every day is no worries. But I have just checked and he has got two more white areas developing on the bottom of his tummy - just like what these two looked like before it developed into the hole - does that still sound like a wound? it's almost like its spreading or something (the new ones are one each side of his belly)?
 
nope unfortunately that sounds like a fungus which is spreading or systemic bacterial infection, and neither is great news.

based on the pics and the new info I say it is likely to be the bacterial infection and it may be necessary to consider a more active agent than mela/pimafix - perhaps maracyn if that is available.
 
Maracin I can definitely do, I'll get that tomorrow instead of the primafix, and I'll leave the melafix in, but do a water change tomorrow before putting the maracin in. He just looks so normal behaviour wise.
 
try and make sure that its not a fungus - although again from what is described and shown it looks more like bacterial to me. A fungus you might expect to be broadly more cottony, as opposed to ulcerated. If you do an image search you'll get plenty of pics.
 
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