White Flakes On Honey Gourami

[bikerman03]

I noticed that on the left hand side - just before the tail starts, on the my red honey gourami has about 6 white flakey lumps. The best desription I can give is to say it looks like dry crusty salt ! I tried for ages to get a pic but she obviously wanted to only show me her good side !!

Any ideas what it might be?

Bikerman03

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hmmmm could be white spot although i'm not convinced..... you say it's like salt.... if it's white spot it'll look like lots of tiny individual grains of salt.... doesn't sound quite like what your describing though.

can you give us some moe info to help, tank size, other inhabitants, how long it's been running, maintenance routine, any chemicals or treatments your using, tank decor, full description of how the problems developed, any new additions to the tank (fish, equipment, decor, water treatment products?)???

that'll do to be going on with!

 

[bikerman03]

Hi Miss Wiggle

Okay, some details

Tank is a 20gal running a CF1000 external filter
Inhabitants are 6x Penguin Tetra, 2x Otto, 2x honey gourmai (1m 1f)
Running time about 3 months.
Maintenance routine – 20-25% weekly water change (using a hose to suck the gravel clean)
I did a few weeks back have an outbreak of white spot (killed of the 4 guppies & Golden barbs) none of the current inhabitants are showing any signs of flicking etc.
No chemical treatments currently going on.
Tank is fairly heavily planted & running a C02 system.

Both gourmai’s have been quiet & sitting around on the bottom of the tank since they were added a couple of months back. I am probably going to add some floating plants for them to hide/shelter under – they mostly sit up in the corner next to the thermometer if they are not hiding in the plants. The white flakey bits only appeared yesterday & as I say they look a bit like dry crusty salt deposits.

Any help appreciated.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

dwarf gourami's do tend to be quite weak so they're not really recommended for tanks that are under 6 months old.

did you do a fishless cycle or cycle with fish? if with fish which ones did you use?

what are your stats fro ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

 

[bikerman03]

Unfortunately I did it with 4 Harlequins - I didn't know about fishless cycling then !

Stats are Amm 0 nitrate 15(ish) nitrite 0 ph7.0-7.5 hard to tell exactly with the test kit.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

OK I just think the problem is that DG's really aren't hardy fish, and although your tank is cycled and your stats are fine, the tank isn't fully matured so they're struggling.

i'm sorry i've no clue what this disease is or how you should treat it but i thik the above is the root of your problems and it may be best for you to re-home them (once they are better obviously) then replace them when the tank has been runing problem free for 6 months. If you choose to keep them you may find they keep getting ill even after you've treated this problem