Is my Gourami past the point of saving?

Hi all,

Ph: 7.5
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 5

He's been in his 20 gallon for about a year now..

Recently (maybe a month ago) my little guy started showing signs of illness and getting sores on his face and body. I treated it for a week with medication and he started to heal and the wounds closed.
Now it's happened again and I started treated again but this morning I found him like this....

He's been super active the whole time and eats like a little piggy and his behavior remains normal.

Help and advice please!

Thank you all.

 

What medication are you treating him with? What did he look like before this morning?

 

I would assume he has a fungal infection, which is one of the most common disorders for fish. These infections manifest as a white cotton-wool-like growth on the skin, mouth, fins or gills. Treatment for cotton wool disease includes salt baths or the antifungal agent phenoxyethanol. In some instances, the entire tank is treated, but if individual infections are present, treating the fish in a separate hospital tank is preferable. The fact he is still active and eating is a good sign, continue whichever treatment you prefer, and hopefully he heals again. Afterwards, make sure the water is pristine so it doesn't return.

 

To add to what I asked earlier, now that I'm not in between classes -

He certainly does have a fungal infection, but fungal infections in fish are basically always secondary to another problem - anything that exposes tissue, such as a bacterial infection that ate through the slime coat or a scrape that removed scales. If there is another infection underlying the fungal infection, just treating with anti-fungals is only going to solve half the problem.

In his case, it looks like he has a fungal infection on top of whatever is causing these sores to erupt. Cause could be something like columnaris, HITH, or mycobacteriosis, unfortunately not always easy to tell. His eye looks cloudy, the sores seem extensive on his head and a lot of tissue has eroded, there is a fungal infection topping off the lesions, his scales are raised in multiple spots, he looks underweight telling by the prominence of his swim bladder, his mouth appears either extended or eroded... I would euthanize in your situation because the outlook seems dire and he looks very uncomfortable. But I'd like to have a little bit more information before I can make that recommendation solidly, especially about what medication seemed to work last time and if he got this bad before.

 

To add to what I asked earlier, now that I'm not in between classes -

He certainly does have a fungal infection, but fungal infections in fish are basically always secondary to another problem - anything that exposes tissue, such as a bacterial infection that ate through the slime coat or a scrape that removed scales. If there is another infection underlying the fungal infection, just treating with anti-fungals is only going to solve half the problem.

In his case, it looks like he has a fungal infection on top of whatever is causing these sores to erupt. Cause could be something like columnaris, HITH, or mycobacteriosis, unfortunately not always easy to tell. His eye looks cloudy, the sores seem extensive on his head and a lot of tissue has eroded, there is a fungal infection topping off the lesions, his scales are raised in multiple spots, he looks underweight telling by the prominence of his swim bladder, his mouth appears either extended or eroded... I would euthanize in your situation because the outlook seems dire and he looks very uncomfortable. But I'd like to have a little bit more information before I can make that recommendation solidly, especially about what medication seemed to work last time and if he got this bad before.

Thank you for taking the time on the lengthy response. I just got back from work so sorry for the delay.
Before the white fungus he just had open sores. Which went off and on. He would be fine. Then sores. Then fine. Then sores.
I treated with Pimafix and Melafix the first time. And I'm currently doing the same thing. I'm not very experienced with medicines and when doing research lots of treatments are thrown around and i don't want to do the wrong one or overdo it either.
When I checked him tonight after returning from work. The white fungus is gone and the swelling seems to have gone down. I will be doing a water change tomorrow.

I would assume he has a fungal infection, which is one of the most common disorders for fish. These infections manifest as a white cotton-wool-like growth on the skin, mouth, fins or gills. Treatment for cotton wool disease includes salt baths or the antifungal agent phenoxyethanol. In some instances, the entire tank is treated, but if individual infections are present, treating the fish in a separate hospital tank is preferable. The fact he is still active and eating is a good sign, continue whichever treatment you prefer, and hopefully he heals again. Afterwards, make sure the water is pristine so it doesn't return.

I am going to do some salt tomorrow. Yes, he acts normally so that gives me some hope. It doesn't seem to have affected him other than the visible problems. I just want to make sure he's not suffering. Definitely will keep an eye out on behavior.

 

I'm not a big fan of pimafix or melafix or any of the "fixes" to be honest, and melafix isn't particularly safe for labyrinth fish such as gouramis. I would stop dosing those.

Methylene blue is my top recommendation for fungal infections (of course in combination with treatment of the underlying infection) but you say the fungus is gone, so I wouldn't worry about that quite yet. But if you find a way to buy it, I definitely would, because it's an amazing and safe medication to have on hand.

I think your choice for treating with aquarium salt in this case is worth a shot, as long as his quality of life seems manageable for the time being. There isn't any diagnosis anyone can give you reliably without the fish being seen by an aquatic vet (which isn't realistic for most people and their small tropical fish), which means there isn't any specific medication that could be reliably recommended without being a total shot in the dark. I would not recommend antibiotics. Make sure to do a large water change to remove the fixes before dosing aquarium salt. If your tank is planted (which it appears to be), you will want to move him into a hospital tank for treatment because most plants won't do well with salt.

Good luck!

 

Comeeeee onnnnn guys have mercy for this fish please. Please euthanise.
No treatment and ongoing suffering.

Stated this before but sometimes a fish is too far gone. This is a clear case.

 

Hi JujuBear
I'm really sorry about your fish. I agree with DoubleDutch. As hard as it is, I believe it's time to say goodbye.

 

Comeeeee onnnnn guys have mercy for this fish please. Please euthanise.
No treatment and ongoing suffering.

Stated this before but sometimes a fish is too far gone. This is a clear case.

He's crossed the rainbow bridge. The fungus came back and I didn't want to keep doing this to him. But he looked at peace when I put him down. So that made me a happy parent.
Thank you all for the help and advice. I will definitely take it all into the future with me.