Gourami Top Fin Peeling? Please Help!

[trianglekitty]

I have a gourami that has been battling Ich now for MONTHS. I've tried just about every commercial treatment. The one thing I'm waiting one is a shipment of Protzon by Waterlife, but I had to ship it from the UK and it's taking forever to arrive.

In the meantime I'm back to adding some salt and raising the temp, which I've done before with some small benefit. I just looked at him and realized his top fin looks a little discolored. He's a dwarf gourami and it should be blue, but it looks "muddy" and dark. It also appears to be peeling on one side near the tip.

I have no idea if this is from the ich or if it's a completely new issue. I also don't know if it could be a result of the salt in the water. The hospital tank is about four gallons and I added one teaspoon. He's acting fairly normal and eating well.

I swear if I lose this fish after spending so much time trying to get him healthy I'm quitting fish keeping.

Water Stats:

Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 20ppm

I did a 50% water change today, but that was before adding salt.

 

[karin]

Doesn't sound like ich. Hard for me to believe that it is ICH if you have tried the malachite green/ formalin remedies and the others. Did you treat for two solid weeks? Did you add full doses? Could it be something else, a bacterial infection? Did you post pictures and have it verified by others? How is it peeling? Is there a film on it? I can't visualize peeling.

 

[Danbarb]

Please don't quit even if the fish does pass away, I hope it doesn't...

I've thought about quitting a few times in the last month or so. I've battled poor plant growth, outbreaks of algae, sick yoyo loaches, tiger barb flashing, and a heater that has raised temperatures up to nearly 28 degrees C. (now broken). I've also spent over £200 on products I actually don't need, annoyingly. I had a battle with aesthetics not being right for the tank over and over, trying to sort this out to make the tank look more adequate. Yet. I love fish too much. I understand your pain! I had one albino barb die on me recently, and well - I get quite attached to my fish so it was a sad moment.

I am sure people here will try and help, and sometimes fish just get sick. You can't miracle cure everything, but it is admirable you are doing your best. There are (stupid) people out there that would just flush their fish down the loo and the like, you should pat yourself on the back that you care for the welfare of your fish!

Hang in there! Try melafix. (I'm not an expert but it sounds like he could have fin rot??)

 

[trianglekitty]

Doesn't sound like ich. Hard for me to believe that it is ICH if you have tried the malachite green/ formalin remedies and the others. Did you treat for two solid weeks? Did you add full doses? Could it be something else, a bacterial infection? Did you post pictures and have it verified by others? How is it peeling? Is there a film on it? I can't visualize peeli

The fin issue and ICH issue seem to be two different things. The ICH is several small white dots on his lower fin and body. He used to be in with two guppies who had it much, much worse and both were successfully treated. For some reason I just can't clear it on this guy. Every course of treatment as been at least two weeks. The latest was RID Ich, which I did for three weeks at a full dose every twelve hours. The weirdest part was when he was in with the infected guppies he had only one spot as compared to their dozens, and that one spot appeared to go away. A month later the ICH returned even though no new fish had been added to his tank and the guppies were no longer in with him.

The area on his fin is a dark discoloration and the fin spines are gone in that area. Peeling might be the wrong word- it looks like the fin is thinner in that spot. I will try to get a picture tomorrow to post. I thought fin rot was supposed to start out as a white area, not a dark area, but I could very well be wrong. Maybe I have been treating him for the wrong thing all along. Are there bacteria infections that resemble ICH in form?

I'm starting to fear he might have dwarf gourami disease, in which case there is nothing I can do. We do have a fish doctor a state over- I might see if he can do a consultation with just pictures.

 

[karin]

Pictures would really help.

Here is an idea though. My angels have white sand-size dots on their tails and fins. A few. Well I started watching these as previously I had treated for ICH with other fish and it was successful. I just watched these and there was no change in the number or position or with any other fish for a month. So started asking questions here and it turns out that fish can damage their fins and you will see scar tissue along the rays of a fin. Sometimes hard to see but the rays are the spines of the finnage. This scar tissue can look a lot like ich. Turns out it is common in cichlids because of their semi-aggressive nature but I imagine it can be true of other fish. Thing is I don't think this would happen on the body.

Any chance that your fish has scar tissue on the fins? Maybe all the medicating has been counter indicated. BUT it does sound like now you have a fin rot issue.

I wish I had more knowledge to help you out. I wonder what happened to WILDER? She was great and knowledgeable.

If you have pictures send the ASAP to us. Lots of people have experience they can draw on.