Golden Gourami lost some scales?

[yardsales]

Hi, so I have a golden gourami. I inspect him thoroughly every day when I feed him. Tonight he looked great, but I just got home from work today and I immediately noticed a small spot on his back. It looks like he lost some scales. Im trying to be hopeful and tell myself maybe he hit the rock formation in the tank. I noticed the small scales at the bottom of the tank and I’m worried about him. He is in a 40 gallon tank and his only tank mate is an albino pleco.
I just tested my water and everything’s good.
Nitrite-0ppm
Ammonia-0ppm
Nitrate-25ppm
Ph-7.4

I hope this isn’t a bacterial infection, anyone have an idea?

 

[Colin_T]

Your gourami is a girl, she has short rounded dorsal and anal fins. The males have longer pointed fins.

I need a clear picture. If you can take some more and check them on your computer. Find one that is in focus and clearly shows the problem and I can offer more advice.

Bacterial infections usually start out red. Fungus normally starts out white.

Fish do lose scales from swimming into objects or the pleco might have grabbed her during the night. Monitor her over the next few days and if it gets worse, post more pictures.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for the next 2 weeks or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water.

 

[yardsales]

Your gourami is a girl, she has short rounded dorsal and anal fins. The males have longer pointed fins.

I need a clear picture. If you can take some more and check them on your computer. Find one that is in focus and clearly shows the problem and I can offer more advice.

Bacterial infections usually start out red. Fungus normally starts out white.

Fish do lose scales from swimming into objects or the pleco might have grabbed her during the night. Monitor her over the next few days and if it gets worse, post more pictures.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for the next 2 weeks or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water.

Thanks for the advice, I would’ve never knew she was a female. I had her with a DG(flame) and they didn’t get along at all. Violently chasing each other around. I bought a newer, larger tank and put her(Golden) in the new tank and kept the DG(flame) in the old tank.
sorry for the picture! I am at work right now and don’t have access to provide a better picture but I can upload a few of the ones I took when I posted the original thread. I looked at her this morning, it’s very evident that the mark is healing and it is already reduced in size.
I’m uploading two pictures I took the other day when I noticed the mark and I’ll do a follow up picture in a few hours of what it looks like today.

 

[Colin_T]

If it's getting better, then it was a graze or scratch. Keep the water clean (with big water changes and gravel cleaning), and it should heal up without any issues.

You should never keep more than one species of Labyrinth fish (Bettas & Gouramis) in the same tank because they are all extremely territorial towards other Labyrinths and will fight to the death.