Dwarf Gourami issue!

[themikestro]

Hi everybody, I'm suffering a fishy problem.

I've had problems with dwarf gouramis but i'm determined to sort it out. Firstly I lost one female gourami to mysterious causes, i bought another a week later and sure enough that one died within 10 days when everything else in my tank has been fine. Neither of these females exhibited weird behaviour apart from I never seemed to see them eat anything, which is odd because my male takes food happily. Has anybody else experienced anything similar?

However more importantly my male gourami has fallen ill, I noticed a cloudy, wooly growth around the "ear" area, after going away from the weekend the growth had resulted in an ugly and painful looking ulcer like wound... I treated it before I went away with anti fungus treatment but the problem has been compounded by one of my swordtails, this cheeky fish keeps biting and pestering the wound making it bleed.
I've put this sword in solitary confinement hoping that when/if the wound heals thw swordtail will leave it alone.

Have I done the right thing and can anything be done to aid the healing proccess as the wound doesn't seem to be improving much, i've added some stress coat to see if that helps.

Please don't let me kill another gourami with a lack of experiance, I don't want it on my concience!

Thanks!

 

[Origami Gourami]

I was recommended Melafix by somebody on this forum for a similar ulcer type injury. I think immediacy is the key, as my Dwarf didn't survive (I was treating it with Stress Coat for a while with no effect, before I got the Melafix tip-off). Only problem is Melafix is fairly expensive (£6.99 at Petsmart, UK - probably $10-11 US), but you get a good size bottle and it's useful to have in stock. You can also use it to stop spreading nasties from store water in new fish bags to your tank I believe.

PS The ulcer on my dwarf was a nip that went bad and became really ugly, could be a similar thing?

Hope this helps.

 

[themikestro]

Hmmm, I think I might just have a dodgy example of gourami kind, his forehead seems a little more pronounced than others i've seen and on close inspection it looks like he has a scarred gill just below this new wound. I don't know what the ulcer is, I thought it was a fungal infection because it started as a small white bump which grew and eventually became this messy looking wound.

Gouramis give me nothing but problems! I thought they were meant to be nice simple fish, I do my best to provide all the things they need and what do they do? Refuse food and die, or develop mysterious injuries! Great.

Thanks for the advice though, i'm going to the pet shop this afternoon to see what they have in.

 

[Origami Gourami]

Yeah they can be hassle-some, but they're great to look at! My Opaline looks great under the lights and is no bother. Same with the Golden, though he likes a bit of chasing now and again. Have seen a really nice Indian Giant I might get this weekend.

NB Since the War of the Dwarves, the sole survivor now lives a reclusive lifestyle in his hiding place, possibly reliving past horrors...