Big fleshy spots on Female Dwarf Gourami. (Bites? Bacterial Infections?)

[jomix]

Hi,

I’m having an issue and I am scared for my fish. A week ago these fleshy white spots appeared on my female dwarf gouramis. They share the 80L tank with a single male dwarf gourami and a shrimp. The tank is kept at a nice 24 degrees Celsius and I clean the tank every week and do a 30% water change every time with some stress coat added. Ammonia levels have almost always been 0 and I have had the tank for 8 months and these fish for 6 months. I also keep a few small live plants in there and some moss balls.

Now that all of that is out the way... They started slightly smaller and whiter but now they seem to be getting bigger and redder... Are they bites from fighting which have gotten infected?? Some kind of bacterial infection? The male is completely fine, could he be attacking them? And of course the most important question: Will they live?

Thank You and I hope someone can help...

 

[UnknownFishies]

@Colin_T
When did they first appear?
What are the ready of your water parameters

 

[DoubleDutch]

To me these are sores a sign of Dwarf Gourami Disease. Nothing you can do otherwise than euthanise (sorry).

 

[UnknownFishies]

To me these are sores a sign of Dwarf Gourami Disease. Nothing you can do otherwise than euthanise (sorry).

It does look like DGD but I’m not really good at identifying these things.

 

[jomix]

@Colin_T
When did they first appear?
What are the ready of your water parameters

A week ago, I thought it was white spot first of all so I put some white spot control on with the last water change a few days ago. What do mean by the ready of my water parameters?

 

[UnknownFishies]

A week ago, I thought it was white spot first of all so I put some white spot control on with the last water change a few days ago. What do mean by the ready of my water parameters?

Sorry, freaking auto correct thought I was saying ready. I meant readings. Ammonia, nitrite that sort of stuff

 

[Colin_T]

Bacterial infections that are usually the first signs of the gourami Iridiovirus.

There's not normally any cure for this disease as it's caused by a virus. If you want to try and keep it alive, you need to treat the secondary infections (the sores) and try to build up the fish's immune system. However, the success rate when treating fish with the Iridovirus is less than 1% and the virus usually has a 100% kill rate.

The virus is highly contagious and can affect any labyrinth fish (Bettas or gouramis), and the virus remains in the tank even after the fish have died. So don't add any new labyrinth fish to the tank until you have removed the remaining gouramis and stripped and disinfected the tank.

I would euthanise the sick fish and when the other gourami develops the same symptoms, I would euthanise that one too.

Try to avoid buying dwarf gouramis (Colisa lalius) and all of their colour forms because they are regularly infected with the Iridovirus and or Fish TB, neither of which can be treated.