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okay so i've had my neon blue dwarf gouramis for 3 weeks now.
when i first got him a couple days later i noticed some fuzz on top of his head, and well me being new and all with having a gouramis i left it.
about a week later i noticed he had several cuts/wounds on his body, and noticed that some of the bleeding heart tetra's and columbian tetra's attacting at him.
they were quickly removed from the aquarium.
originally i treated him with melafix, and he showed some improvement.
i later then found out that the pink fuzz on top of his head might be fungus. so i started treating him with pima fix.
well good news the pink fuzz on top of his head is now completely gone.
but the cuts that originally occured now have pink fuzz on and around them.
as well, his tentical thing was split in two and part of it fell off.
today i noticed that now there is osme pink fuzz at the base of that.
so i am seriously starting to freak out.
is he in trouble?
is he sick?
is this natural and the fuzz has to come for his cuts to get better?
i dont' know. and it's scaring me.
please somebody help and let me know if there is anything i can do to help him!
thank you
LIB
(one concerned parent!)

Fungus can appear on fresh wounds. The fact that it's falling off is a good sign that he's fighting with his own immune system. The melafix will help with this, the most important thing he needs right now is a stress free environment. Is he still eating? If he is he should be ok.
A healthy stress free fish will heal from these kind of cuts by himself pretty quickly. A stressful fish who is not eating may succumb very quickly.

I had the same thing with a feamle who was quite frankly severely raped by the male. Whole chunks of her back were missing and covered in fungus, and most of her dorsal fin was gone. She was fine and not a mark on her within 3 or 4 days. The male must jave been ashamed of himself, he's been very gentle with her ever since !

I'm sure with some rest and care, some nice nourishing food he'll be fine in a few days.

Good luck

---

Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Make sure your ammonia, nitrates and pH are within the proper range...

Testing is important.

--garyroland.

okay my water paramiters seem fine.
nitrates are 0, nitrites are 0, ammonia is 0 and ph is 7.4.
he's swimming around and healthy. he eats regularly, he's actually been a little more "hungry", (he acts like he wants more food) lately.
It's been just over a week and a half since the whole attact and cuts appeared.
i used melafix for the first 4 days, i was hoping to get the cuts heeled. then it turned into fungus.
on the top of his head first, then a bit on his fin where it was torn and now on the cuts along his body.
the fungus on top of his head cleared first so i'm jsut worried about the cuts and his fin.
this morning his fin appeared a bit white around the edges instead of the pink fungus.
is this a good or bad thing?
i'm starting to freak out a little!
thanks for all the help anyway.
maybe it's too late, but i'm not going to stop trying.
LIB

Here's my long winded response

Lady - how long has this tank been set up? With 0 nitrates I am wondering just how new this tank may be? Or, do you have live plants in this tank?

What size tank is it? Who is left in the tank with him now?

If this is an established tank, then I would isolate him to a 5.5 gallon or preferrably a 10 gallon. You can transfer him with some of his own tank water to minimize shock and to ensure the same temp. You can probably get away with just an airstone. I like to use check valves to make sure there is no back-siphon should a power outage occur. If you have a warm room to keep him in that is around 75F, then there is no need for a heater, provided there are no drafts. I would then dose the tank with Fungus Clear Tank Buddies. The meds in this are aimed mainly at bacteria that looks like fungus and can cause the symptoms you describe.

If you must treat the main tank and there are no plants, you can dose Fungus Clear here, but I would check for ammonia and nitrite daily starting three days into treatment and continuing another 3-4 days after. Spikes can happen any time you use such meds.

What we need to be careful with is that such external infections can quickly lead to secondary, internal infections that are much more deadly. Fungus Clear has two powerful furanoids in it, along with acriflavine. After weeks of on and off showing of the infection, I think it is time for a heavier med. That's just my opinion. It's always best if you can do it in isolation to preserve your main tank's bacterial colony. A rubbermaid bin can serve the purpose, but make sure you have a loose fitting lid and that chemicals have never been stored in there.

Jungle products are available in Canada to the best of my recollection. Try Wal-Mart or a chain store. If you cannot find that, then go for any product containing erythromycin or e-mycin (same thing as Mardel's Maracyn which is effective for columnaris infections). What I like about the Jungle product is that it is also mildly effective against fungus along with bacteria. If you can find another Jungle Product called Pepso Food and feed it for 3 days, it will boost his recovery all the better and work on any infection that may be getting into his bloodstream. I believe Fungus Clear Tank Buddies is the stronger med in the line. Fungus Guard is more for fungus than bacteria and Fungus Eliminator has alot of salt in it.

http://www.junglelabs.com/pages/details.phtml?item=TB630

http://www.junglelabs.com/pages/details.phtml?item=NJ169

Use this as a reference to show that Pepso Food is recommended for "Fungus". I place it in "." because it is often bacteria that just looks like fungus. True fungus grows on dead tissue, whereas bacteria grows on injured and dead tissue. Jungle Labs Chart

If you don't see a change after one treatment, then I would switch to erythromycin.

One advantage to treating the main tank is that if columnaris is in abundance in the aquarium, you can work on decreasing its numbers (it is present and growing in most aquariums on decaying food and organic matter). Gravel vacs to remove uneaten food are helpful to keep it under control.

If you have no cories, otos, plecs or other scaleless fish, and if you have no plants, I would strongly suggest adding a half dose of predissolved aquarium salt like Doc Wellstone. Predissolve it in a cup and just dribble some some of the solution in throughout the day to gradually increase salinity. You could probably do more, but I'm not looking at using it for infection, rather it would help replace electrolytes lost through the open and raw skin.

Diane

[span class="edited"][Edited by Cory_Di 2004-07-09 10:46][/span]

Jungle products can be found at Big Als...

Good luck with your Gourami


The Amazon Nut...

http://www.bigalsonline.com