alexraj

Hi All,

I have a dwarf gourami for about 8 months. From last 2 months I noticed a white kind of thing under his mouth, I thought it is a wound as I have a rainbow shark which chases the gourami once in a while. It started disappearing for a while, only to show up 3 weeks back. Now he has a similar thing near his dorsal fin. What is bothering is his stomach is getting bloated. He is eating and swimming normally, and his fins look ok. I treated him with fungus clear, thinking it is probably a bacteria infection, but that doesn't seem to help. Any ideas what is going on? Should I just leave him and keep the water extra clean, and hope he will be okay.

Thanks,
Alex.

COBettaCouple

Do you have any pics that you could post? What's his usual diet? Does he have any white and/or stringy poop?

If you suspect a bacterial infection, then you want an anti-biotic like Triple Sulfa rather than an anti-fungal like fungus clear.

alexraj

Thanks BettaCouple. Here are the pics of my gourami.

Attached Images

	Gourami_Pimple.jpg (26.0 KB, 22 views)
	Gourami_Bloat.jpg (28.0 KB, 25 views)

alexraj

btw, he regularly eats veggie flakes, tetramin flakes. I supplement him with freeze dried blood worms twice a week. Another thing I forgot to mention is there are lot of snails showing up recently. I use to pick them one by one, but they are too many now, about 10 small ones that I can count. The water parameters are good with 0/0/10-20.

COBettaCouple

He could be bloated from overeating if he's been eating snails. Also an all-dry diet can contribute to constipation.

I'd do anything I could to get rid of the snails and start him on a pea diet.. 3 pellet sized pieces of a thawed & peeled frozen pea twice a day. A day of that, then a day of fasting, then another days of the pea diet.

joy613

I noticed one thing about my fish when I give them any freeze dried food they get constipated. I now give them frozen food as a treat instead.

alexraj

Thanks. I never imagined my fish would eat a snail :-(. I thought the only side effect of snails is increase in bio-load. I will get some snail killers, and start the diet you suggested. Going forward I should probably skip the freeze dried food as well. Let me try and will post how it goes.

alexraj

After reading other threads on snail killers, I choose not to use chemicals to kill snails. I am crushing them when I see them, and reduced the snails considerably. Now, my problem is, I could not get my gourami to eat peas. He spends most of the time on top of the tank, and never goes to bottom in search of food. I tried dropping it straight in front of him, but he shows no interest in peas. He still eats flakes as usual, as it is floating. How can I get this finiky guy to eat peas. It seams tougher than feeding brocoli to my son :-).

Alessa

try soaking it in garlic juice from a can of minced garlic.. he might eat it then.

alexraj

Thanks Alessa, but it is not working either. Should I continue to starve him until he eats peas? If he doesn't eat peas at all, how long can I go before give up and give him flakes.

zeebo

have u tried boiling the peas?

boil them, have the skin removed and mesh it up into a paste.
give bit by bit to the gourami.

most fishes will eat peas.

alexraj

I couldn't try this as he passed away :-(. Thanks for all responses.

zeebo

Hi alexraj,

I am sorry to hear you lost him.
Keep your chin up.

COBettaCouple

I'm sorry that you lost him. It sounds like you did all that you could for him.