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Help identifying injury or disease


SpacedCadette
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Hi folks. I recently acquired two honey gourami and while one is doing excellent, the other one seems to be having an issue that I can’t identify. 

She had a dorsal fin deformity when I got her and one gill seemed a little irritated, but it wasn’t concerning at the time. Behavior and appetite seem normal and she doesn’t appear to be getting picked on by anyone in the tank. However, her scales have been looking rough and I can’t pinpoint what’s going on. It has slowly progressed since I got her a couple of weeks ago. I tried treating with Prazi Pro early on and gave her a salt bath a couple nights ago, but haven’t seen any improvements. 

Tried my best to get decent photos of her, but she always hides when she spots my phone. 😩

Any advice is welcome. Parameters below:

  • pH - 6.4
  • Nitrates - 0
  • Hardness - 25
  • Nitrite - 0
  • Ammonia - 0
  • KH/Buffer - 40
  • Water Temperature - 80F

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Edited by SpacedCadette
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Have you seen any aggression between the two honey gourami any bullying if not it could be bacterial in that case I would do a course of kanaplex in food feed a small amount twice a day for 7 days store any leftover medicated food in the fridge

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@Henry the fish keeper, haha. She seems to be! 
 

Thanks for the advice, @Colu!

I just placed an order for the KanaPlex and should have it by tomorrow morning. I moved her into a 5g quarantine tank last night to keep a better eye on her, so it should (hopefully) be easy to feed her the medication. 
 

I haven’t witnessed bullying between the two. They might chase each other a little bit around feeding time, but that’s all I’ve really seen. Admittedly, I’m rather new to fish keeping so there could be behavior happening that I’m not picking up on. The gouramis spend time together frequently and I don’t see this one avoiding the other or anything like that, though she is the more shy of the two. 

Edited by SpacedCadette
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On 4/26/2022 at 12:48 PM, Henry the fish keeper said:

In my point of view the honey gourami looks a bit injured.

She very well could be. 😔

I've got her separated for now. If she heals quickly that could be a sign that she's getting picked on. Especially if she heals up, goes back in the tank and this issue reoccurs- that'll definitely confirm it. And if that's the case, is it better to isolate her in her own tank or the other gourami?

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On 4/26/2022 at 1:01 PM, SpacedCadette said:

She very well could be. 😔

I've got her separated for now. If she heals quickly that could be a sign that she's getting picked on. Especially if she heals up, goes back in the tank and this issue reoccurs- that'll definitely confirm it. And if that's the case, is it better to isolate her in her own tank or the other gourami?

It´s your choice you can separate her and put her in a tank away from the other honey gourami or you can take the other honey gourami out.

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Injury is certainly likely, though a bent spine like that is also often seen in certain parasitic diseases, for example Neon Tetra Disease (not saying that's what this is, just giving as an example). I would expect she's not infected now, as at the very least her coloration looks fine. (Redness in the gill might be another injury, and she may indeed be a victim of bullying.) If she's alone in the quarantine tank, I'd say just keep an eye on her, make sure she's eating, and make sure her stomach doesn't start sinking in or something. Probably dose something to help with what definitely does look to be an injury on the right gill.

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Update: she’s had two days in the 5g quarantine tank by herself now. I can’t tell if it’s the lighting but I feel like she’s looking a little worse than she did a couple days ago. I feel like the white flakey spots are more prominent on her head now. 

Dosed some of the KanaPlex per@Colu ’s directions, but I don’t think she’s eaten any of it yet. Used the garlic additive to entice her and still couldn’t get her interested. Going to give it another shot tomorrow, maybe I’ll mix up a new batch with something really appealing like blood worms instead of the dry stuff.

Still swimming and reacting normally. Bowel movements don’t seem unusual either. Tested the water and parameters look good.

I really hope she recovers… She’s so quirky and goofy, I’ve grown pretty fond of her. 

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Edited by SpacedCadette
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If you can't get her to take the food just dose the tank I would add some aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 2 gallons as well as the kanaplex the salt will aid Gill function and add essential electrolytes help with any possible bacterial or fungal infections just remember to only put back in the amount of salt you take out so if you do a 2 gallon water change put one table spoon of salt back in

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So it’s been a couple days and I’m still not seeing any real improvement yet. 🥺

I’ve currently got her in a 5g quarantine tank where I’m doing a salt treatment following this co-op guide:  https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish. I’ve got her on level 2 right now and it’s been about 2 days. 

I’ve also got some of the KanaPlex in there as well. I’m not sure what a reasonable timeline is to start seeing positive changes but I’m hopeful that I’ll see improvement soon. 
 

videos:
https://imgur.com/nnanR2K

https://imgur.com/46lwwjS

 

Edited by SpacedCadette
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On 5/3/2022 at 7:59 PM, SpacedCadette said:

So it’s been a couple days and I’m still not seeing any real improvement yet. 🥺

I’ve currently got her in a 5g quarantine tank where I’m doing a salt treatment following this co-op guide:  https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish. I’ve got her on level 2 right now and it’s been about 2 days. 

I’ve also got some of the KanaPlex in there as well. I’m not sure what a reasonable timeline is to start seeing positive changes but I’m hopeful to see improvement soon. 
 

videos:
https://imgur.com/nnanR2K

https://imgur.com/46lwwjS

I am so sorry to hear that your honey gourami is not doing well even when you added treatment. Please don't give up you got this!

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On 5/3/2022 at 8:09 PM, Henry the fish keeper said:

I am so sorry to hear that your honey gourami is not doing well even when you added treatment. Please don't give up you got this!

Thanks, Henry ♥️♥️♥️
 

She’s still eating well and active so I’ve got high hopes for her recovery. 🙂

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With antibiotic treatment it can take two courses of treatment before you significant improvement I would keep treating with salt and kanaplex if she still eating and active that a good sign 

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On 5/4/2022 at 3:36 AM, Colu said:

With antibiotic treatment it can take two courses of treatment before you significant improvement I would keep treating with salt and kanaplex if she still eating and active that a good sign 

Good to know! This is my first time doing a treatment on one of my fish, so I appreciate all the knowledge sharing 🙂

I'll drop another update here in a week or so after I do a second round of the kanaplex.

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Mini update:

Beginning to feel like I’m seeing some visual improvements to Lemon’s condition, so that’s good! (Lemon is what I’ve named the gourami and it was starting to feel too impersonal referring to her without using it, lol).

Started her second round of KanaPlex today as well!

I also bought a couple of silk plants to add some novelty to the hospital tank for her. Hopefully these makes her feel a little more comfortable and help further reduce any stress she may have. 
 

Video: 
https://imgur.com/P95xcx1

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Need help figuring out if this is healing or getting worse… her gill is starting to concern me. Originally, I thought I was seeing improvements overall but now I’m questioning that.

I feel like I’m also seeing some white fuzz on the very edge of the gill now?

Energy and appetite are still good, but I’m definitely starting to worry a bit.

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Here is a full shot of the tank:

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And a current reading of water parameters. Temp is 78F.
There are three doses of KanaPlex currently in the tank in addition to 2.5 tablespoons of aquarium salt. (5 gallon tank)

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I would say that looks less red overall it looks worse I would up the salt to 1 table spoon for 1 gallon keep treating  with kanaplex if not noticing any significant improvement after the second course of kanaplex you might want to treat with antibiotic medication that treats gram positive bacterial such as maracyn 

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On 5/11/2022 at 6:14 AM, SpacedCadette said:

@Colu Checked in on her just now and her breathing seems abnormal. Could this be because of the gill lesion? Is there anything else I should be doing? I don’t want her to be stressed or struggling ☹️

video: 
https://imgur.com/bavXTWQ 

 

You could an another air stone if she breathing heavily

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Whatever is afflicting Lemon seems to be progressing. The top of her head in particular seems to have gotten worse overnight. I’ve been able to give her the KanaPlex orally now which has been good. But man. Wish I knew what was going on. 😥

She was hanging out near the front of the tank so I was able to get some decent pictures of her just now that show the damage pretty clearly. She’s a bit pale because the light was off right before I took the photos, so I suspect she was sleeping. 

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Im also starting to worry about her body condition. She’s been eating fine but even with her fin deformity her profile looks considerably more narrow than my other healthy HG in my main tank. 
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For reference, this video was taken back when I first got her and the other HG back in the first week of April. https://m.imgur.com/GfuP9kg

You can see that her gill was a little irritated even then. At first I thought it was something minor since she already had it when I brought her home from the LFS. Just figured she got bullied a little in the store tank or something but clearly there was something else going on. 

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The fact that maracyn hasn't been effective and the disease is progressing I think you need to treat with kanaplex and jungal fungas clear fizz tabs containing nitrofurazone together following this treatment schedule effective at treating more severe infections and nitrofurazone also treat's fungal infections 

Screenshot_20220510-012936~2.png

Edited by Colu
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