Fish Injury Identification

Hello,

I have a 29g tank with cardinal tetras, two honey gourami (one red), 5 pygmy corys, a clown pleco, shrimp and assassin snails. I have a gravel bottom, driftwood, and a mix of live & fake plants and two fake logs, one floating.

Something happened to one of my gourami within the last 20 hours. I'll attach photos. The gourami behaves differently too. Its slower, tends to hover in place, and doesn't react to my presence. Injuries are only visible on that side. I've never seen anything like this before in my tank, but I know gouramis will sometimes fight each other and can cause injuries. However, both have been together for almost three months now and I've never seen them fight. They rarely even run away from one another when approached, unlike previous gourami I've had who were constantly posturing.

I'd also like some suggestions explaining what looks like an air bubble on the bottom right if possible.

Thanks for the help!

Please can we see the other gourami?

Since I posted this, their condition has deteriorated rapidly, and I made the decision to euthanize the gourami. While incredibly sad, this did give me a chance to take very clear pictures. Hopefully this will help me find out the cause and give closure.

Naughts said:

Please can we see the other gourami?

Click to expand...

The tank is asleep right now, but if you want to know if there are any marks on the other gourami, there aren't. I can get pictures tomorrow if you still want them.

It's either a physical injury, possibly caused by the fish getting stuck under or behind something. Or it's a bacterial infection. However, if the tank has been set up for a while and you haven't added anything new to the tank in the last 2 weeks, it is unlikely to be bacterial.

Is it possible it had a mishap with the filter intake.

Colin_T said:

It's either a physical injury, possibly caused by the fish getting stuck under or behind something. Or it's a bacterial infection. However, if the tank has been set up for a while and you haven't added anything new to the tank in the last 2 weeks, it is unlikely to be bacterial.

Click to expand...

After looking more, I think this was an injury from physical trauma. The dark spot in my second set of pictures is noticeably larger and darker, which I'd think indicates internal bleeding. That would also explain the rather rapid health decline.

I'll look for anything that mightve been moved out of place, either because it fell on him or he got trapped under it. I'd think a wound that bad would have a noticeable cause.

itiwhetu said:

Is it possible it had a mishap with the filter intake.

Click to expand...

I don't think so. I have a steel cage around the intake that keeps large objects from getting sucked in. My cherry shrimp crawl on it all the time and don't get sucked in place by the current.

Gemtrox42 said:

The tank is asleep right now, but if you want to know if there are any marks on the other gourami, there aren't. I can get pictures tomorrow if you still want them.

Click to expand...

Sorry for your loss

In terms of the chances of aggression I was wondering if your red honey gourami was indeed Trichogaster chuna, or if you had been mis-sold Trichogaster Labiosa. The latter would be more aggressive as it matured, especially if also a male.

Naughts said:

Sorry for your loss

In terms of the chances of aggression I was wondering if your red honey gourami was indeed Trichogaster chuna, or if you had been mis-sold Trichogaster Labiosa. The latter would be more aggressive as it matured, especially if also a male.

Click to expand...

Oh man that is a good question. Just looked at pictures of both and minus the colors they look virtually identical. How can you tell the difference? I'd like to know so I don't make a mistake buying them in the future

As they are so similar it is best to ask the store to see their invoice that came with them to check the scientific name. There may be people on here who could distinguish them but I'm not one of them .

Well just in case, here's some pics of the other.

I also just remembered two other times I had fish with physical wounds, albeit nothing as severe as this.

I can't find anything that mightve fallen on him. I just can't imagine how he got so badly hurt.