Hello all, well I almost managed to go a month without posting an emergency, but I'm back.

Water Parameters are all good and temperature is 25C but I've noticed a variety of symptoms/odd behaviour amongst my fish:

Dwarf Gourami: Ragged fins, generally lethargic, loss of colour. A greyish discolouration on the top of his head, looks a lot like the mould on old bread.

Platys: All of them are exhibiting flicking/ flashing, fins all look good, no discolouration, however they occasionally swim at a slightly odd angle, appearing as though they're not entirely on an even keel.

Tetras: generally lethargic but and not really shoaling anymore.

Amano shrimp: fine.

Nothing new has been added in the past month or so, I think I'll medicate for whitespot tomorrow, but I just wanted confirmation from someone more experienced that this is indeed the correct course of action. Also I have heard that invertabrates might not take too kindly to medication, is this true?
Any help is appreciated, thankyou for your time.

P.s. I can post some (low res) pics if that'd help.

Don’t know what is wrong with the fish, white spot (ich) is easy to diagnose due to the tiny grain of salt like white spots, as you haven’t mentioned them I doubt its white spot. The mould on the gourami suggests a fungal infection but I don’t know. Hopefully someone will have a better answer.

Ok, what are your water stats, meaning the numbers. I have seen too many people say their water is fine when it definately is not, so unless I know you AND trust you, i like to see the numbers.

It does not sound like white spot at all. The mouldy looking stuff is a bacterial infection called columnaris, which is often mistaken as "fungus" which the previous poster did.

It is best treated with a broad spectrum antibiotic, such as kanamycin (k-mycin, kanacyn) or a combination of Maracyn and maracyn 2. Another alternative is to use tetracycline (which can harm your biological filter) or eythromycin (not broad spectrum, but will work on most bacteria)

Raising the temperature will help the antibiotics work better.

Stats:
Ammonia 0
Temp 25C
No3 10
n02 0
GH 10D
Kh 6d
ph 6.8

Stats haven't changed in four weeks or so (since I started writing them down). I understand tttnjfttt's skepticism, I'll be sure to post them in future.

This post has been edited by Fastblur: Jun 21 2006, 01:00 AM

I just looked at your post again, and realized you talked about your temperature in Celcius. Where are you from? The meds I listed are from the US, and aren't always avalable elsewhere.

My bad. (again) I'm in the UK (adds this to profile).

Ok, so all the meds I recomended aren't avaliable over there. I know the interpet meds are pretty popular. You want to look for an anti-bacterial medicine. Its best to act quickly because the meds avaliable over there are fairly weak.

Hello again all, just back from work, the Gourami does not look happy, and is now covered in a grey looking dust. I had a re-read through the stickies and the closest thing I can find seems to be something called 'costia.'
I'll buy a bottle of interpet tomorrow morning and medicate by lunchtime. I just wish I'd noticed this earlier as this is one sick looking fish.

Hmmm, this is a tough one. What you described yesterday sounded like a typical bacterial infection, with the excpetion of the flashing. Now that the fish is covered, i'm not sure. I would definately agree costia is a very real possibility. Since it is covering the entire fish, i would try treating for the parasite first.

Good luck!