Sick Gourami  12/7/08 Hi! First, I have to apologize for my English as it is not my mother language (I'm from Croatia, Europe). <No problems. Your English is certainly much better than my Croatian.> 3 months ago I bought 4 Trichogaster trichopterus. The Trichogaster that I want to ask a question about had a small white bump at the base of the dorsal fin which was damaged, but I didn't see it until I got home. I put it in quarantine and treated it with 2 cycles of a wide spectrum medicine called Medimor by Aquarium Muenster (combination of Ethacidrinlactat, Tertamethyl-thioninchlorid and Acraflavinchlorid). Didn't help. So I changed the water, waited a week or so, and tried with Sera's Baktopur (Acriflavine, Methylene blue, phenyglycol) and Mycopur (Acriflavine, cupric chloride, cupric sulfate). <These are various antiseptics, widely sold in Europe because antibiotics aren't available in pet stores. To be brutally frank, they only work up to a point, and aren't substitutes for antibiotics at all. While useful for external infections during the early stages, they won't cure everything, and won't fix serious problems.> No use. Then I tried salt baths which (I think) made the problem worse because those spots spread all over her body, but then it might be from the stress. The disease doesn't seem to be infectious, all other fish are fine (I put her back into the main aquarium, because the small quarantine surely wouldn't help, and was lucky, I know I shouldn't do that). She has a very good appetite, swims well, doesn't hide, doesn't scratch against objects, doesn't have clamped fins, her faeces are fine. The spots are between 1mm and 4 mm big, they look like white lumps sticking out of her body and there are about 15 of them (I hope the photos will help although they're not very good), the skin around them looks pinkish. Her skin on other parts of the body also looks a bit damaged, but her fins (apart from the dorsal which didn't grow back) are all ok. I read everything I could find, posted a question on forums but I can't seem to find anything that looks like this. Maybe Lymphocystis? <Could be; certainly, gouramis do contract Lymphocystis on occasion, though not commonly. It could be something else though. Perhaps another virus? It doesn't look exactly like Finrot, though I'd be treating for Finrot/Fungus before anything else. In Europe, I recommend a product called eSHa 2000 for this; it's economical and very effective, and seems to fix a lot of different problems, including Finrot, Fungus and Columnaris.> The aquarium is 10 months old Juwel Rio 180, 180 l. It has 2 big Ancistrus and a lot of their babies, 7 Kuhlii loaches, 4 Microgeophagus altispinosa, 2 Siamese algae eaters, 2 small Botia histrionica and those Trichogasters. Water properties are stabile at: temp 25 C; pH 7,5; KH 10; GH 15, nitrites 0; nitrates 25. <One thing I would consider is physical damage. Certain algae-eating fish will "suck" at the bodies of other fish. In doing so, they pull up the scales, exposing the flesh underneath. The skin becomes infected, often looking "bubbly". Isolating the injured fish and treating for Finrot/Fungus will help, but long term the fish causing the damage will need to be rehomed. I'd be watching your Ancistrus, Crossocheilus, and Botia in particular.> I do 15 % water change weekly, with water that was left for 24 hours and treated with Nutrafin's Aqua+. I feed the fish with Nutrafin's Staple food in flakes, frozen bloodworms and frozen daphnia and my own frozen food prepared from cooked peas, carrots, hardboiled egg, bloodworms, powdered Spirulina algae ( I plan to add some garlic next time), and gelatin powder, all squashed into a paste. Please help as I (and everybody else I asked) have no idea what to do. Thank you!
Morana
<Hope this helps, Neale.>

Re: sick Gourami  12/9/08 Hi Neale, thanks for the quick response. Which antibiotic would you recommend? Because I can buy an antibiotic from my pharmacy if I say it is for my pet, or I can ask my vet to write a prescription. <In my fish medication book, a variety of antibiotics are recommended for ulcer-type infections: Furazolidone (20 mg/l), Nifurpinol (0.1-0.2 mg/l) and Oxytetracycline hydrochloride (20-100 mg/l). Use whichever, added to the aquarium water, and always remember to remove carbon from the filter while medicating fish. Use for 7-10 days, after which do a decent (25-50%) water change, and repeat medicating as required.> But if it is a virus, it won't help anyway. <Quite.> Oh, those Botia are in the aquarium since Saturday, so it couldn't be them, and I never saw either Ancistrus or Crossocheilus picking on her. <May happen at night, when you're at work... In any case, when I had Otocinclus catfish doing this to a large Awaous goby, it was many weeks after noticing the damage that I actually saw the fish "in the act"!> She is now in a 30 l quarantine tank, I'm treating her for fungus and Finrot, although not with eSHa because it is not available here, but I will try to buy it on the net. <Hope this helps, Neale.>