Plecosaurous

Hello, I just purchased a beautiful dwarf gourami today from my LFS, however once I put it into my tank I noticed a pretty good sized gash on the left side of his head. How should I help him recover? I called my LFS and she said to put salt into the water, which I did. She also said that if I don't want to try to heal him back to health that she would refund my money. What should I do?
Thanks!
Kevin a.k.a. Plecosaurous

Shawnie

oh no kevin! im sorry your fish isnt well
but labyrinth fish dont do well with salt....id return him/her before the gash gets infected and causes more issues with your tank...but thats my opinion..if you want to try to heal him, prestine water with some stress coat and vita chem could help as salt will act as an irritant and stress the poor thing more IMO ...good luck in whatever you decide!

sirdarksol

Agreed with Shawnie.
If I were to try to help a fish like that recover, I wouldn't use salt. Over the next couple of days, do a few partial water changes a day to remove the salt from the water (don't do it too quickly or the osmotic stress could harm the fish further).
StressCoat and VitaChem will help it heal. You could use a product like MelaFix, but there is a huge caveat with that; a minor overdose can kill a labyrinth fish. If you choose to use MelaFix, it would be best to use half normal dosage or less.

Craig-D

My betta cuts himself on a regular basis in my tank - likely on the lava rock he enjoys hanging out in. If you keep your water clean and treat the tank with a slime coat replacer (I recommend Kordon's NovAqua), a healthy fish will heal completely in a few days. Mine always does.

Plecosaurous

I returned him today. Ended up purchasing 6 cardinal tetras, and 4 rasboras that are colored neon red and neon orange. It seemed that 2 gouramis did not bode too well in my 55 gallon together.