White Spot (Flesh Wound?) On Gourami

I'd certainly try switching them over to the 18g temporarily to see if it is some bullying going on. It won't hurt them to be there for a short time. Just make sure you use established filter media to set it up if it isn't already. Really hoping for the best for them!
 
Also the water test kit I ordered arrived yesterday but I wasn't home - going to pick it up at UPS today. Hopefully get everything all ironed out.
 
Since I got the email with your entire first post in it, I'd like to comment about the guy who's asking for fish to take in. I certainly wouldn't think that's a bad idea, but just be sure you check him out first, just like you were going to if he were adopting a puppy. Ask questions about whether his tanks are cycled, even to the point of going to check them out. If he turns out to be a responsible fishkeeper, you might establish a good relationship with him which could benefit both of you in the future.
 
That's true - I only deleted the stuff because I was going to post elsewhere - I'm on a sugar glider forum where they really frown upon getting off topic and didn't wanna ruffle any feathers here lol.

Thanks for your opinion though! Appreciate it very much.
 
This Old Spouse, Melafix is not a dechlorinator ;)
I never suggested it was.
Sorry, the combination of saying that chlorine is poisonous and to use Melafix or Stress Coat sounded like you meant is to remove chlorine. Stress Coat is not a medication, so should not be used as an alternative to one. Tea tree oil (in Melafix) is a mild anti-microbial, but aloe vera (in Stress Coat) has no proven healing properties (the "research" provided by API looks quite a bit unreliable and API do not say that it is peer reviewed, which means that it probably is not). Treating the fish is a good idea, but preferably with something that is proven to work at least to some extent.

Rummynose, the link does not mention chlorine: can you provide evidence that chlorine works as a disinfectant? I recommend that you are more specific when giving advice; most dechlorinators will deal with far more than just chlorine. You might find it of interest to know that chloramine (which is quite different from chlorine) is used commercially to treat against gill parasites, there are a few papers on this subject.
To be more specific: Tolak's comment which is comment #5 on said thread!!!!!
Now go back and read again: his comment does not mention chlorine. He says "free disinfectant", but he does not say what it is and as I mentioned, most dechlorinators affect more than just the chlorine. Chloramine (which is very different) and metals are also affected by most dechlorinators. Some even affect ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. So what makes you think that Tolak is talking about chlorine? Or that it is not a pure coincidence? Or that someone else's water contains the "free disinfectant" same as his? Please do not repeat everything you hear/read unless you see proof to convince you that it is true or otherwise because that is how urban myths are started.

Think about it, if Tolak said "I stir the water in the hospital tank around with my hand to get more oxygen into it", would you go and tell the next person with a wounded fish to stir the water with their hand? I should hope not, because while keeping water well oxygenated is important, disturbing the fish is harmful and there are other, less invasive methods to achieve the same thing.

That one is starting to look a little better, but now the other gourami (same species) is starting to look fairly bloated.. overfeeding is definitely not the issue... Parasites of some sort? Its only the gouramis though, all of the other fish are healthy as can be.

I have an 18 gallon tank that I'm debating separating gouramis into at least temporarily. Is that way too tiny? This way if its a bully fish is be able to tell. If that is the case I could either rehome or look into a bigger tank if 18 is.way too small for 3 gouramis.
What species are the gouramis and what are the tank dimensions? It would probably be an improvement on the current tank if whatever caused the damage is still present and a threat.
On the other hand, a bare and unusual tank can be a stressful environment, so do your best to make it as comfotable as possible, including using most water form the existing tank (tap and tank water parameters can differ quite a bit).
Also, if the other gourami has internal parasites, then it is likely that the whole tank will need treatment because other fish will be affected too. Did you use any life or frozen foods recently? Or add any new fish?

I don't see anyone picking at him or being aggressive towards him unless it's when the lights are out.
It is not uncommon for fish to behave quite differently when there are no people around, especially for aggressive fish.

I know Kat also said that's only for secondary infections.
And so are Primafix and Melafix, really.

Do fish scab like out of water animals? It almost looks like sometimes the white is gone, but almost like it fell off, but then reforms.
No, they do not because a scab is basically dry blood, but it's not possible for blood to dry underwater.
 
KittyKat, I am very offended by the tone of your words! I am not your little toddler whom you can send back to their rooms, to try the clean up again! We are all deserving of respect here, I have never come across someone as condescending as you have shown to be here! If someone spat in your porridge this morning please don't take it out on me!

So, what else has desinfectant qualities that the dechlorinator takes out of the water?

Instead of criticizing someones comments why not add your knowledge to make everyone learn. But no, you choose to make people feel bad about themselves, make yourself look superiour and turn a perfectly civil thread into a war!

Please enlighten us stupid wanna be aquarists, which seems to be especially me, what are these free desinfectants called?

At least my point in my comment was to help someone with their problem, if my words were chosen wrong, I apologize! You try it in a second language and see how well you do with someone riding on correct terminology, and superiour knowledge! You make me seriously consider not taking part in any discussions on here again!!!!
 
I don't know the exact name of it I will try to identify online later - have to run out now... it's picture is in the first post though, and I had 2 of those... When I woke up in the middle of the night all the fish were alive and seemed ok - When I posted later this morning, I hadn't been in the living room yet and the bloated gourami had died.. The other one looks a little better, but more or less the same.

I also have a giant gourami that is doing well... minus a small scrape on each side right above his lower fin. The tank is 55gal - 4' wide, 1' deep, 18" high. Not heavily planted because of the balas, but I do have plants on the two endss, and low plants in the middle. I think I'm still going to separate the last 2 gouramis tonight to see if bullying is the issue. Agree? Also, I know a giant gourami would outgrow without a doubt, but I took him from a situation where he was in an even smaller tank... but would an 18 gal be ok for a few small gouramis?
 
I don't know the exact name of it I will try to identify online later - have to run out now... it's picture is in the first post though, and I had 2 of those... When I woke up in the middle of the night all the fish were alive and seemed ok - When I posted later this morning, I hadn't been in the living room yet and the bloated gourami had died.. The other one looks a little better, but more or less the same.

I also have a giant gourami that is doing well... minus a small scrape on each side right above his lower fin. The tank is 55gal - 4' wide, 1' deep, 18" high. Not heavily planted because of the balas, but I do have plants on the two endss, and low plants in the middle. I think I'm still going to separate the last 2 gouramis tonight to see if bullying is the issue. Agree? Also, I know a giant gourami would outgrow without a doubt, but I took him from a situation where he was in an even smaller tank... but would an 18 gal be ok for a few small gouramis?

Erm, a tank with those dimensions is actually a 45g tank.
blush.gif
 
KittyKat, I am very offended by the tone of your words! I am not your little toddler whom you can send back to their rooms, to try the clean up again! We are all deserving of respect here, I have never come across someone as condescending as you have shown to be here! If someone spat in your porridge this morning please don't take it out on me! […] Instead of criticizing someones comments why not add your knowledge to make everyone learn. But no, you choose to make people feel bad about themselves, make yourself look superiour and turn a perfectly civil thread into a war!
I respect you as someone giving advice, which is exactly why I asked you to provide more information. If I did not have any respect for you, I would probably have told you to stop giving out advice that is harmful. No offence, but it is not my fault if you have no basis for your advice other than "someone said…". Again, go back and read again what I wrote: I have not criticised you once so far, I have only asked for your reasoning and for you to back up what you said. You will also see that I have given advice to the person with the problem, which can be summed up as "treat the wound with medication".

So, what else has desinfectant qualities that the dechlorinator takes out of the water?

Please enlighten us stupid wanna be aquarists, which seems to be especially me, what are these free desinfectants called?
This is exactly what I have been asking you, and since you cannot reply, I assume it means that you do not know. You can go and look at any specific water supply report just as well as I can, then look up what it contains and find out what qualities those things have. After you have done that, research how these things affect live fish. As I have already pointed out, you probably want to start with reading about use of chloramine in aquaculture treatments. Next, it would be a good idea to examine some other water reports from areas where water is treated differently and make a decision about how your advice might impact someone whose water had been treated differently. Research is hard and takes a lot of time.

First criticism: you should not expect other people to do your work for you.

I do not treat tap water as a disinfectant and recommend that other people do not either. Two disinfectants that *my* water supply contains (that I know of) are chlorine and chloramine, and enough of those are in my water supply to harm the filter and cause an ammonia spike. It would be stupid of me to try using their disinfectant properties in my tanks.

At least my point in my comment was to help someone with their problem, if my words were chosen wrong, I apologize! You try it in a second language and see how well you do with someone riding on correct terminology, and superiour knowledge! You make me seriously consider not taking part in any discussions on here again!!!!
Second criticism: if you assume or miss things when you read, then maybe you should read twice before replying.

The point is not about terminology, it is about repeating what someone else said and assuming that it is true, just because someone else says it. I would really prefer if you did do your research and thought about the reasons behind what you say while continuing to contribute, but if you do not think about the things that you repeat, then it's probably better that you do not give advice that can potentially be harmful. In this case, if you had given the advice to me and I would have done what you suggested, I would be stuck with an ammonia spike, doing 1000s of litres in water changes every day. Can you see how this would be a problem? Instead of one of my fish having a head wound, I would have 50 odd fish having ammonia poisoning. If anything is superior, it is not my knowledge, but my insistence on trying to make sure that I know what I'm talking about.
Incidentally, I am writing in my second language right now and having worked abroad with non-native English speakers in English, I can conclude that terminology is actually very important to avoid ambiguity.

Do you realise that all you had to do to satisfy my interest was say that the Wikipedia article on chlorine has more details about its disinfectant properties, that you did not know of any studies done about the effect of chlorine on fish and that it would be a good idea for the dude(ette) with the problem to check how their water is treated? :crazy:

I don't know the exact name of it I will try to identify online later - have to run out now... it's picture is in the first post though, and I had 2 of those... When I woke up in the middle of the night all the fish were alive and seemed ok - When I posted later this morning, I hadn't been in the living room yet and the bloated gourami had died.. The other one looks a little better, but more or less the same.

I also have a giant gourami that is doing well... minus a small scrape on each side right above his lower fin. The tank is 55gal - 4' wide, 1' deep, 18" high. Not heavily planted because of the balas, but I do have plants on the two endss, and low plants in the middle. I think I'm still going to separate the last 2 gouramis tonight to see if bullying is the issue. Agree? Also, I know a giant gourami would outgrow without a doubt, but I took him from a situation where he was in an even smaller tank... but would an 18 gal be ok for a few small gouramis?
That's a lace gourami (Trichopodus leerii). Is there any chance that the bloat had something to do with unusual food?
Sorry, I was asking after the size of the 18 gallon, not the 55 gallon (+1 what This Old Spouse said about that). As long as you can make them comfortable in that, then it's probably a good idea to try it. Keep in mind that gouramis are generally territorial, which could lead to fighting between the two, so watch them very carefully.
I used to work for a shop that had two adult giant gouramis, they must have been in the 60-70 cm range! If you cannot provide it with a bigger home in the long term, a zoo might take it in.
 
I could be off on dimensions was going on memory from working in a pet store in high school lol.. its definitely 55 gallon.

Will have 18 gal dimensions by tonight. :)
 
Kitty Kat, I think the problem lies with you not reading the whole post, as had you done so then you would have known that it was mentioned to add the dechlorinator before turning on the filter, so the bacteria would not have been compromised. So if your bacteria had died off it would have been because of your inability to follow instructions!

You've also asked if I've tried to find out if the OP has chlorinated or dechlorinated water, again it shows you've failed to read thoroughly!

This is the post I had made which is post #6:
If you have chlorinated tap water you could try daily w/c where you would add the tap water un-dechlorinated. Make sure your filter is turned off so you do not kill your beneficial bacteria. The chlorine will double as a desinfectant for the wound. Before you turn on the filter again, add the dechlorinator to the tank to make it safe for your filter. This should prevent any secondary infections and help the wound heal.

Having a smaller hospital tank would be very handy for this, since the daily water changes would be a whole lot easier!


You've accused me to not do my research even after supplying the link where people can get the same info as I had. I think they are smart enough to come to their own conclusions, and do their own research if they feel the need to know the specifics of water chemistry!

Don't fault me for your short comings!!!!

The fact is, that chlorine and chloramine both have desinfectant properties. The fact is, that untreated water can be used to sanitize a wound. The fact is, that it was mentioned to dechlorinate before turning on the filter. The fact is that you have added nothing to my suggestion asides from being an irritant! I'm not feeling particularly satisfied with your comments either!

Now, since most posts on this forum are just repeating what someone else had said or is something they have read, someone better start removing them all! And everyone better get into minute details to satisfy your interest!
 
The 18 gallon had no hood or lighting with it - so may just buy a smaller 'hospital' tank - anyone have any suggestions where to order one online that is fairly inexpensive? With or without a stand?
 
Hi everybody, I have a dwarf gourami that's having the exact same problem as OP, It has a small white spot that looks like it's pus comming from under a scale. sometimes it's a large white "Tag" And other times it looks gone. My gourami was just treated with API General cure for internal parasite in a my hospital tank but after i used the medicine this injury arose. 
The tank it was is was a 29 gal tank with a couple live plants and drift wood. I have 2 dwarf gouramis, a large angel fish(NOT AGGRESSIVE), a yellow/orange chinese algae eater, a kuhili loach, and an african dwarf frog, It's been set up for years with no problems. I do a 1/4 water change weekly, 
The Gourami has just like JSmith Described, "White Lesion with pinkish edges of the wound closer to the head. 
I have no camera that will take a good picture and my phone camera doesn't open, But i promise, imagine that picture from JSmith, but on a blue dwarf gourami. 
 

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