Pink lips?

[Tenko]

My neon dwarf gourami has had a furry top lip for a little while now. When I first noticed it I treated the tank with melafix and it seemed to go. I finished treatment after the recommended 7 days and did a water change.

Next day, his lip was furry again, so I started treatment again, but seem to think it will just come back again.

I've done a bit of research into mouth fungus, but all descriptions describe it as a cotton like white growth. This is pink though, and I can't find any reference to pink fungus.

Any ideas?

 

[R.T.Cat]

Never seen this before! Maybe the pink is just soreness and it is making the whole white'cotton wool' growth appear pink?

 

[reg2k2]

Sounds reasonable to me. If the Melafix doesn't work alone, you might try a Mel- and Pimafix combo...

 

[freshmike]

In my experience with fish injuries, pima and Mela work awesome together.

Best of luck to the little guy!

 

[Tenko]

Thanks guys, I've had to leave him for a few days after finishing treatment but will check to see if it's come back and will post my findings.

The colour confused me, during the first treatment it actually came off and floated away, it was very pink.

 

[Tenko]

Well checked up on him and he seems fine now, no sign of pinkness at all.

Will have to treat the water again though, I think a guppy's been nipped and is looking like the start of a bit of rot. I'm starting to suspect the gourami's of nipping, it's happening a lot and I've not noticed the culprit yet.

 

[Tenko]

you might try a Mel- and Pimafix combo

I've got myself some more melafix, haven't got pimafix yet though. If you suggest adding both at the same time, do you cut each dose by half or what?

 

[Tenko]

Well the pink fluff went and he's been fine for a few days, but now his lip looks very sore. He might be missing a little bit of it.

Would this have been caused by an attack, could he have caused it himself, could it be bacterial? Whatever it is Melafix hasn't cleared it up.

 

[Tenko]

His mouth still looks very sore, as if part of it is missing. I am wondering whether the wound on his side has the same cause, and wasn't due to an aggresive gourami.

Any ideas on what could cause this sort of problem?

 

[Mesome]

I had a male dwarf gourami and he died of what appeard the same thing. His lips looked as if they had almost been torn in places, and the "sores" were pink. Then he got what looked like a big welt on his side, then the scales started popping out, then were gone and I saw what looked like exposed flesh, then it got fungus I suppose as it was all poofy and white...like mold. Then he finally died. It was really sad... That was when I found this forum. Too late for the little fishy. I treated him with an anti fungal/bacteria. It didn't help. All I can think of is that I didn't cycle my tank and the water conditions were poor for quite a while, until I got the bio-wheel filter. I think that he may have just been suseptible from that. I have no clue what to do, bu I would consider taking him to your fish store so that they can look at him. I wish you luck and please keep us posted.

 

[Tenko]

I have considered the water quality. The main tank is fully cycled and I do 20% change every 2 weeks. I moved him to the small tank which was new last week. I had preprepared some filter media in the main tank and also put another fully established filter sponge in too.

I've been doing 33% water change every 1-2 days and adding melafix but it has made absolutely no difference to the wound. I think it cleared the fungus up that had grown over it, but not the wound itself.

This tank is a treatment tank after a few attacks, and a guppy with tail rot isn't improving either.

 

[Mesome]

One thing that seemed to help a little, but was too late because mine was so far gone was this stuff called triple sulfa. It was in capsules. Treated cotton mouth, fin rot, body slime and eye cloud and also treated bacterial hemorrhagic septicemia. I have no idea what the last thing was, but I was tempted to believe it may be what was wrong with him. It seemed like it was helping his poor little mouth more then his side.... The meds were manufatured for Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. I wish you good luck on this!!!