Red Dwarf Gourami Spitting Out Trailing Waste-like Slime

[crmpicco]

I am having an issue with my Red Dwarf Gourami. He appears to be in a critical condition and doesn't appear to be getting any better.

Over the past week or so he has had trailing waste at time along with a slimy white string that he spits out his mouth. It looks very similar, but it comes from his mouth and he seems to suck it back in. He's hanging around the bottom of the tank bent over and getting stuck in the filter.

To follow the rules, my water readings are as follows:

pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0/0.25ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 20/40ppm

There's nothing there that jumps out at me, so I'm not sure what to do? Would there be any benefit in doing daily 50% water changes if this fish has an terminal disease?

Tank mates are:

3 x Neon Tetras
3 x Harlequins
1 x High-Tailed Platy

The tank is 70ltrs.

 

[Noahs ark6]

Ammonia should be 0 all of the time. And which one is nitrite because you've put them both down as nitrate.....
Also, the neons, harlequins and platies need to be in groups of 6+ As they are schoaling fish

 

[WILDER]

What do you feed your fish?
Is the fish eating well?
Check the fish anus to see if it's enlarged. red inflamed.
Does the fish body appearance look bloated, or thin.
Is the tummy sunken in.
The long strand that coming out of his mouth. Does it resemble fish waste. Does it resemble, or look like a worm. Or look like cotton strands.,
Any deformities. (Bent spine).


Cotton stands coming from the mouth is a disease called flexibactor columnaris.

 

[crmpicco]

Ammonia should be 0 all of the time. And which one is nitrite because you've put them both down as nitrate.....
Also, the neons, harlequins and platies need to be in groups of 6+ As they are schoaling fish

FTFY. At this moment in time I don't want to be thinking about adding more fish to the tank, considering one is suffering from an ailment.

What do you feed your fish?
Is the fish eating well?
Check the fish anus to see if it's enlarged. red inflamed.
Does the fish body appearance look bloated, or thin.
Is the tummy sunken in.
The long strand that coming out of his mouth. Does it resemble fish waste. Does it resemble, or look like a worm. Or look like cotton strands.,
Any deformities. (Bent spine).


Cotton stands coming from the mouth is a disease called flexibactor columnaris.

I feed my fish a mixture of flakes, discus granules, algae mix and frozen bloodworms. The gourami is eating but I wouldn't say he is eating all that well. I watched him last night when I put in some flakes and bloodworms and he kept spitting them back out.

I would say the Gourami's body looks quite thin really, definitely not bloated. "Cotton Strands" is probably a good way to describe it and i've noticed that his fin at the back looks like it is has been eaten away (is this finrot?)

His body does look quite deformed at times, like his spine is bent. I done a bit of reading on "flex" and it doesn't look good.

I'm going to P@H today to buy some aquarium salt as i've read that can help fish with this disease, however I get the feeling it's too late in the day for this gourami I've got a ton of pest snails in the tank at the moment so even if it doesn't help the gourami it won't be a complete waste of time. I'm actually loathed to get rid of the snails as the tank is absolutely spotless with them cleaning it for me.

 

[WILDER]

The symtoms are pointing towards.
Fish TB.
Internal parasites.

Any other fish in the tank showing symptoms.
How do the neon tetra look in body appearance, colour.

Does the fish look terrible. In a bad way.
If so I would think about putting him out of his misery.
If you don't wnat to do that. He needs isolating.

The strand in the mouth is definately looks like a strand of cotton, rather than fish waste, or a worm?

Don't add salt to the tank,. As you can't add salt with neon tetra's.

 

[crmpicco]

The symtoms are pointing towards.
Fish TB.
Internal parasites.

Any other fish in the tank showing symptoms.
How do the neon tetra look in body appearance, colour.

Does the fish look terrible. In a bad way.
If so I would think about putting him out of his misery.
If you don't wnat to do that. He needs isolating.

The strand in the mouth is definately looks like a strand of cotton, rather than fish waste, or a worm?

Don't add salt to the tank,. As you can't add salt with neon tetra's.

Sadly my gourami died. He seemed to hang on for so long towards the end and the cotton wool growths appeared in his last few days. No other fish in the tank showed any symptoms, they all appeared quite unaware of the predicament of the gourami. I guess with a lot of fish problems it's difficult to pinpoint the ailment, certainly that appeared to be the case with my gourami who didn't last too long in my tank. I'm not sure what "lessons learnt" can come out of this as if I don't know what killed him and why I can't prevent it from happening again if I get another Red Dwarf Gourami in the future.

I added a few spoonfuls of aquarium salt to the tank before I could read your message. But it didn't seem to affect the tetras, I'm interested to know however, why is this harmful to tetras?

 

[WILDER]

That what I was worried about. Columnaris. (Cotton strands, cotton wool)
Did the mouth start to rot away.

Remove the salt from the tank with water changes.
Not all fish tolerate salt. Especially Neon Tetra's.

Sorry for your loss.