Help with my moonlight gourami?

Question

My moonlight gourami jumped out of the tank 2 days ago. The kids left the lid open, when I discovered him lying on the floor he was barely damp. I placed him back in the tank, and he was swimming ok, but yesterday I noticed an odd shaped patch of white on one side, just above his midline from the back of his head to his tail... he was pretty spooked but still eating well. I also noticed it's feelers began to split. This morning he was full blown fuzzy, I diagnosed saddleback columnarus, He is in isolation, water temp @ 74 f with an airline running full blast. Currently I am treating with copper & formalin. Will this be enough or should I head out to the LFS for some maracyn? Also do I need to treat the rest of the tank? The other fish seem fine, they have no outward symptoms the water chem is ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 10. They have not endured the stress of being on the floor for several minutes. I call the gourami Rasputin... Any help here would be hot.

Edit: Thank you for teh advice so far! I wanted to add that the tank is salted. I keep all of my tanks at one rounded tablespoon of salt per ten gallons. and to give an update: big patches of the fuzz fell off shortly after the inital treatment. There were scales attached to the fuzz. My concern is with the loss of scales will the salt damage the skin underneath?

Answer 1

Odds are slim that you are seeing a columnaris infection. Columnaris will attack the fish in a very distinct pattern. It will start on or surrounding the dorsal fin and if the spot you are seeing does not do this, then it's far more likely to be a fungus infection. Additionally, columnaris ( regardless of location) grows in an almost perfect circle, slowly getting larger and leaving a red area in the middle of the spot as it gets larger. If you don;t see that pattern, it's probably a fungus.

Copper and formilin are very effective treatments for fungus, but not the best choice for columnaris. The very most effective treatment for columnaris is the antibiotic sold under the brand name Furanace. After that, tetracycline (Maracyn TC) is the second most effective.

I would suggest you continue your current medications and look for improvement inthe next 48 hours. Increasing your tank temperature to 80-82 during the treatment will also help cure fungus. Not to worry, your goldfish can handle that fine for a few days. If you see no improvement then the potential for this being columnaris is strong and I would start a treatment with one of the above antibiotics. If at all possible, treat the fish in a quarantine tank so the medications don't stress your other fish or in the case of the antibiotics, kill your beneficial bacteria. You can reduce the temperature during treatment for columnaris, the temperatures required to kill it would also kill all of your fish.

Feel free to email me if I can be of any assistance.

MM

Answer 2

Maracyn is one of the best on the market but does not mean that other products wont treat it just as well. I am partial to Jungle products myself. You should not have to treat the rest of the tank because the fungus is taking advantage of the weekended immune system on the fish due to his accident. I would bump the temp to 78 (slowly) and add some aquarium salt to the quarintin tank. This will help the fish utilize the oxygen in the tank, lower its stress levels, help heal damaged scales and help create a new slime coat. (Aquarium salt is great in non planted tanks!) Just keep with the treatments you have as directed, do frequent water changes (10% every couple days) and let nature take its course. Good Luck!