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I'm not entirely sure if it is an attack to be honest, I've not seen any of the other fish attack it, but I am clueless as to what else it could be....

I have recently been restocking the tank... it had got down to 4 neon tetras and 2 harlequin rasboras, 2 corydoras julii and a bristlenose plec.

So, I bought 4 gourami, all dwarf variety, two blue with red tails and 2 gold. All male. Bought them 10 days ago. They all seem in good health as do their tankmates, however one of the blue gourami started with a small red spot just by his dorsal fin two days ago. Since then this has progressed to an area of scales missing the size of the eraser end of a pencil - quite big considering the total size of the fish. There is also a small area of scales missing on the other side, again just below the dorsal fin.

As I say I have not seen any attacks at all, we find the damage when we come down in the morning. I haven't a clue what to do, we have a 100 litre (uk) tank, the ammonia/nitrate/nitrite levels are all registering the lowest reading on the test reading strip so there doesn't appear to be a problem there.

Could it be anything else? And if the poor creature is getting attacked what do we do? We only have the one tank.

Any advice would be most welcome.

as a Q is your tank plated or heavly furnished. I would recommend planting out having a lot of cover for them to hind. With it being all male they fish but not as much as if there was a female in there. But on the other hand they might have be chasing each other and hurt him self on a rock. This happened to one of mine. I left him in the same tank and gave him live or frozzen food and with in a week the problem went a way and he was gd as new. Hope this helps

as it's getting progressively larger I doubt a rock injury....

It's not heavily planted, but there are LOADS of rocks that I have built into little caves, little urn type decorations etc so plenty of 'hiding' areas for them....

Sounds like a localised bacterial infection, try some melafix to begin with, and see how it goes, if theres no improvement go for more vigorous meds.

Four male DG's is a couple too many for that size tank, not in terms of bioload but in terms of territorial aggression. A wound may have started the infection. I wouldnt put more than 2 in a tank that size as basically each male will want about 1.5 cubic feet of water to call its own. If they are thinking of nesting then they will be chasing each other around occassionally and they will doubtless recieve thew odd nip.

Last night we actually saw an attack - we've rigged a makeshift 'divider' out of an old milk bottle (large) so that he gets some space to recover. Today I'll pop out and get a breeding trap for him to give him some space to recover. I'll also have a chat about returning a couple of them to the store, plus get some meds for the injury, although it doesn't currently look infected.

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

I'd definately add a little aquarium salt to the tank to help speed up the healing process. Whenever I have a fish with an open wound I usually take a plastic cup wwith a lid add a small amount of salt to it. Then I couver the cup and poke holes in the lid so the salt is gradually added to the tank.

We've got some Tonic Salt today. Recommended putting a small amount in the breeding trap with the affected Gourami. Ended up visiting an alternative aquatics shop due to getting short shrift from the original....

Im sure this is true, but other may or may not agree. Adding salt is a big problem many people think is good for the fish. Although they may say it is good, it is actually very harmful for fish that arent supposed to havbe any salt. It could very well kill your DG. Only brackish water, and marines should have salt in it. That wont be good eh?

Good ol melafix is best, and even pimafix for antifungal precaution. Adding salt may sound like a reasonable thing to do, but it just wont click , since in the wild, salt is unheard of. Also, your cories cant stand salt, and will now be stressed or die.......... Salt is a no-no

If the DG is male, that might not be good for the whole tank, as they will torture the fish to death. Gold gouramis to me are the 3 spot variety. Do your gouramis have any spots or spot-like markings on it?

Good luck!

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I'll go with gobyfan on that, salt is a bit of an archaic treatment, not especially effective and in some cases contrary to fish's tolerances and osmotic requirement. Melafix is a better antibacterial treatment. Salt only works for short periods in cases where any bacterial infection is caught very early on, or for certain parasites that cant tolerate salt, like external freshwater flukes for example. Most of the time it does nothing except put a stress on the body that they need never experience. Only use salt if you cant get anything better, and thats..... well....not very likely!

Salt is an old cure-all that actually cures remarkably little. The fishkeeping hobby has moved on.

Oh b*****. I dosed it prior to the latest responses. I put half a 5ml tsp just in the breeding trap as recommended.

I do have some Melafix now however. I couldn't use it prior to today as one of the gourami appeared to have white spot and I had been treating that (now gone). Another reason why I am absolutely not using that store again.

The tonic salt was a suggestion just until the Melafix could be used - I'm praying nothing adverse happens in the meantime.

I'll keep you posted on what happens...

Ok, i thyink it is ok to put melafix in while also dosing with whatever whitespot treatment you are using. You should quarantine the infested fish, then use the ick treatment. What treatment are you using?

I think the first one who got it was the injured gourami, and that might have spread throughout the tank. Keep doing both meds(ick meds and melafiz). The worst and most possible thing that could happen is if you dont quarantine the sick fish, it will spread and infest the whole tank. The absolute worst is the fish deaths. Some methylene blue or malachite green meds can be used to treat this. Protozin is best though.

The gourami who is injured, if it gets infected, it will probably die from the stress!

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Update.
The gourami with white spot is now completely clear, we'd been treating this since the day after we got them with malachite green. White spot is no longer an issue.

Despite treatment with Melafix, unfortunately the injured gourami died last night. He seemed reasonably bright, swimming around happily and feeding well, then all of a sudden late last night up he went on his side at the surface and died around an hour later.

Sorry to hear about your fish.

In my experience, breeding pens are a double sided sword. They may very well be a great option to get you out of a tight spot temporarily, but they are also a very confined place that creates a micro system that if not circulated properly may cause water quality to degrade very quickly in the pen.

It may or may not be related to the passing of your fish and most likely the fish was affected by its original illness, but it is something to consider in the further use of this pen.

Also this is only my opinion, may be refuted by more knowledgable people. But those pens, in my experience with molly fry, if not properly cared for are a death trap.

All the best with the rest of your fish and hope it pans out for you sooner than later.

James