Does he have columnaris?

Question

I have a male pearl gourami that, since two to three days ago, has become a bit lethargic. He's been hiding in the cave we had and hasn't been eating. The area from his head to his gills has turned red today. There are no growths or fin damage on him, however...there is what seems to be an orange growth protruding out of his gills. Is he infected? I just did a water change and rinsed the foam part of the water filter last week.

Answer 1

That doesn't sound much like Columnaris. This usually starts as a gray-white fuzzy growth that can progress to an open red sore, but usually still has a white fuzzy edge.

I'm curious about the growth you see on the gills. Is there any way you could post a photo of this? My first though is that this may be some type of parasite, although gill flukes (Dactylogyrus) are so small, they'd be difficult to see. Does he appear to be gasping at the surface at all?

Have you had the gourami long? Another possibility is that if he's in a relatively new tank (running less than 2 months) this may be related to the nitrogen cycle in the tank. Your fish will produce ammonia (toxic to fish) as part of its wastes, but if there aren't sufficient bacteria in the tank to convert this to a less harmful substance and it builds up, it also causes lethargy, loss of appetite, and red streaking on body and/or fins. You could try another 25% water change to see if that helps (you should do a water change also if you determine this is one of the bacterial diseases below prior to medicating).

A final thought is septicemia or furunculosis, which are bacterial infections. Septicemia also causes red streaking, but this is an internal infection. Furunculosis looks like a burst blister.

Answer 2

i dont think so... that doesnt sound like cloumnaris...