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I have a dwarf gourami who seems to be scratched. I only noticed today, but near his head it looks like a scratch, the skin is raised and there are a few scales missing in that area. It's not a large one, but i am a little concerned. He's behaving and eating normally, so it's obviously not life threatening, but is there anything i should do about it? I'm also wandering how he got it in the first place. He lives in a tank with black neon tetras (who ignore him), female guppies (who ignore him) and a male platy who is less than 1 inch (who also ignores him) and there's not really anything sharp in the tank so i'm wandering how he got scratched anyway. Any help would be very appreciated thankyou BNF

If you are concerned then you could add a bit of melafix, but it should just heal by itself if your water is well kept and the fish is otherwise healthy.

If it looks like it has been scratched, he might have gotten a fright (a visiting ferret? a cockroach scuttling past? think outside the tank too ) and just taken an awkward dive into the decor. Gravel can cause quite a mess if it is hit at the wrong angle and at speed.

Keep an eye on it as open wounds can start off simple and end up an infected mess. Things to watch for would be more redness, an increased scratch area, more scales coming off, increased swelling (it'll look like localised pineconing around the scratch) or any fluffiness. Even though nobody normally picks on him, keep an extra close eye out while he is recovering as he might be an easy target for a bully.

Good luck

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Thanks very much. Kept an eye on him and he seems fine. Thankyou BNF