my dwarf gourami is sick. Please help.?

Question

My dwarf gouerami has white fur on his body and looks very unwell. How can I help him? There are lots of other fish in tank. Will they be ok?
The water is absolutley fine.

Answer 1

It is one of two things, Columnaris or fungus.

The best way to tell them apart is that columnaris always grows in a very round circular spot while fungus rarely does. Columnaris is also pearly or opalescent white while fungus is a flatter, grayish white.

Columnaris: it can occur anywhere on the fishes body and there have been documented lab cases of it being a systemic, or body wide infection. It's not real easy to treat as it only responds well to a very limited number of antibiotics. The best treatment for columnaris is Furanace. It is the only known antibiotic that will treat both the surface and internal parts of the infection and the only one that will treat it if it becomes systemic. Other treatments are usually very harsh and include copper sulfate, potassium permanganate and Oxolinix acid. Treat with Furanace for 2 weeks to be sure you are rid of the disease. Columnaris can easily spread from one fish to the next.

Fungus - Hopefully this is what you have and odds are good it is. Fungus is easy to treat and responds well to common Malachite Green ick medications. There are several fungus medications that also contain Malachite Green and work very well. Treat until you have seen no signs of the disease for 5 days. Fungus will rarely spread to other fish in the tank.

Warning: Malachite Green is a known carcinigen so be very careful to keep it off your skin!

Hope this helps

MM

Answer 2

I would say try Melafix or Pimafix. These are both great, natural products. You can find them in your local pet store most likely. To decide which one to use between those two, just look on the back, and see which picture your fish looks most like (they have illustrations of the fish on the back)

From my experience, these work the best.

Answer 3

its a fungal infection.

you need to remove the infected one, and treat him in another tank, as well as the original tank, with fungal cure - ask at your local pet shop.

after you have finished treating with fugal cure, treat with bacterial cure. this is because underlying bacterial infections weakens their immune system, making them susceptable to fungus, which is probably why they have it.

yes, the others will probably get sick too, but remove him from the tank just in case. you still need to treat him, AND the others though.

if you dont treat them, they will all die.

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