SICK GOURAMI

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NEMOISLOST

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Feb 7, 2021
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Help please, my Gourami started squeezing out this green stringy stuff, now she is listless, stays on the bottom and the area is whitish in color1612719750520.png
 

Wyomingite

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Oct 16, 2008
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Ivan
Wow. In all my years I've never seen anything quite like that. For a lesion like that I suspect an injury, a cyst of some kind, or a parasite. So, to start, some questions:

What are the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels?
What is the pH?
What kind of fish are in the tank with him?
Have you seen any aggression between the gourami and his tankmates?
Have you added any fish lately?
Are there any pointed or sharp edges on any of the decorations in the tank?
Has there been any illnesses in the tank recently, and was he sick or did it affect other members in the tank and leave him alone?
Is he eating?
Is he pooping?
What do you feed him?
Does the stuff coming out of the wound move at all on its own?

My first thought is that the green stuff is pus, and my second thought, depending on the eating questions, is it could be undigested food from a hole or series of holes in the digestive tract. But figuring that out would just be one question to help try to diagnose the problem.

Can you get a clearer picture? Even if it's a little bit farther away, a less fuzzy picture would help.

WYite
 
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NEMOISLOST

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Feb 7, 2021
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What are the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels? NITRATE/NITRITE LEVELS ARE HIGH
What is the pH? PH IS LOW
What kind of fish are in the tank with him? Guppies, Neons, Catfish, Stripes, 1 male Gourami
Have you seen any aggression between the gourami and his tankmates? NO
Have you added any fish lately? NO
Are there any pointed or sharp edges on any of the decorations in the tank? NO
Has there been any illnesses in the tank recently, and was he sick or did it affect other members in the tank and leave him alone? NO
Is he eating? Not Much
Is he pooping? Unknown
What do you feed him? Tropical flakes
Does the stuff coming out of the wound move at all on its own? NO

Thought she pregnant until this happened, I will try to get better pictures, this is actually a pic from 12/9/2020, she didn't seem to have any additional symptoms until the last few days

1612724552855.png
 
Last edited:

Sprinkle

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Mar 21, 2020
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Oh crackers! I should not have looked here after eating all those prawn crackers ?

Please list numbers for your nitrite, ammonia and nitrate. Having none provided, we cant help u.

gouramies dont get pregnant, but females carry eggs in there bellies which makes them look pregnant. Gouramies are bubble nesters and egg laying fish. Male will embrace female which will drop her eggs and male will pick them up and put them in the nest and tend them until the fry are free swimming.

try feeding your fish some live foods, frozen foods besides the only tropical flakes. Just a varied diet for fishes.
 

NEMOISLOST

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Feb 7, 2021
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Nitrite is near zero and Nitrates are over 200, I don't have a way to measure Ammonia, but overall the tank is very healthy. I can't remember the last time a fish died and the guppies reproduce like rabbits with a high rate of survivors
 

Wyomingite

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Nitrite can be toxic at levels as low as 0.05 ppm, and 200 ppm of nitrates is way outside of the realm of healthy, unless 200 is a typo and it's supposed to be 20. I should have asked for tank size and how many of each type of fish as well as the other questions. If you could provide that it would help.

Okay, to start you need to do some water changes, assuming the 200 ppm nitrates. If you change too much water all at once it will be a shock to the fish and they will die, so start small. Start by draining about 10% of the water in your tank and replacing it with fresh water every day at about the same time, until the nitrates are below 20 ppm. Regardless of what's going on with this gourami it won't heal well, if at all, at 200 ppm of nitrates. This will also help getting the nitrites down.

Now for the gourami, that second pic helped a lot actually. I've narrowed the cause of the wound to A.) a wound started with a bacterial infection that just expanded and deepened until it penetrated to the internal body cavity, or B.) a larger parasite burrowing into the body. The big question is what is that yellow thing. It's not like any tumor or cyst I've ever seen, and it's awfully big for a parasite in an aquarium. If the cause is A. then it very well may be an organ protruding from the wound, most likely the end of the right lobe of the liver. If it's B., then it may be the parasite itself (?). In either case, I don't see how we end up at the picture in your first post, though, so I'm stumped.

I wish a coupla more folks would take a look.

WYite
 
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NEMOISLOST

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Feb 7, 2021
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The pic with the green stringy stuff is from Dec, the picture of the wound is from a couple of days ago. This is probably A, some kind of infection. The wound pic looks more like a wet scab than an organ, but I'm no fish Dr.

The tank is 30 gal,
2 gourami
1 catfish
3 neons
3 stripes
??? guppies, all ages from newborn to full grown, maybe 20 (1/2 full grown, 1/2 at various stages)

I've changed the filter, drained a couple of gallons to allow the filter to waterfall/oxygenate, and replaced 1 gal so far.

The tank is still at 200ppm and the water is maxed on hardness, I've also added driftwood
 

Wyomingite

Fish Wrangler
Oct 16, 2008
863
607
100
56
Wonderful Windy Wyoming
Real Name
Ivan
The pic with the green stringy stuff is from Dec, the picture of the wound is from a couple of days ago. This is probably A, some kind of infection. The wound pic looks more like a wet scab than an organ, but I'm no fish Dr.

The tank is 30 gal,
2 gourami
1 catfish
3 neons
3 stripes
??? guppies, all ages from newborn to full grown, maybe 20 (1/2 full grown, 1/2 at various stages)

I've changed the filter, drained a couple of gallons to allow the filter to waterfall/oxygenate, and replaced 1 gal so far.

The tank is still at 200ppm and the water is maxed on hardness, I've also added driftwood
I wouldn't expect to see much drop in nitrates until the 3rd or 4th day day of water changes. By then you should probably increase the volume of the water changes to 20% as well. Go another 3 or 4 and increase to 30%, etc. It's been a while since I've had to give any one instructions, so it's starting to come back. I did have a thought, though. How old are your test kits? Expired test kits could be giving you false high readings.

I thought the order of the pics was reversed. Anyways, it's not easy to diagnose things from a pic, so I'll take your word it's a scab. You have a better view than I do. Do you have a hospital tank? That would be ideal rather than adding meds to the main tank. You risk affecting the nitrifying bacteria in the filter when adding antibiotics to a tank. I'm leaning toward a bacterial infection and I'd use a general all purpose anti-biotic. I prefer API brand erythromycin. You should be able to pick it up at your local fish store, whether it's a mom-and-pop shop or a big box store. If you live somewhere small without either, I believe WalMart carries API products.

WYite
 
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