Gourami has spot on head

[Zathoros]

I have a few Gouramis in my planted community tank, 75g. I guess it's been
set up for close to 3 months now, it's been pretty stable no deaths in a
while. Last week I added two new fish though, 2 African butterfly fish. It's
probably a little overstocked, 7 gourami, 6 rosy barbs, 3 danios, 4 clown
loaches, 4 cories, 1 red tailed shark. I guess it's about 80 inches of fish.

I had one of my starter danios die. It had it's skin torn open, I don't know
if it was chewed on while alive or after it died though. The red tailed
shark doesn't like the barbs for some reason. he is always chasing them when
he sees them. Clearly the Butterfly fish are carnivores, they are pretty
laid back though just sitting there, I haven't seen them try to gobble
anyone.

My question is whether this spot on my gourami is an injury or some sort of
disease I should medicate. She has a discolored spot on her head that looks
like a torn scale, it's light grey in color. It's generally discolored
around the area as well, dark, but it may just be where she naturally has a
dark spot. She is behaving normally and tries to eat everything that gets
put in the tank just like the other Gouramis. The larger yellow male is the
dominate Gourami, he chases the other Gouramis sometimes as well. So I
suppose there are 4 suspects who may have damaged her, the larger Gourami,
the shark or the 2 butterflies.

http://www.avadb.com/photos/GouramiScale.jpg
http://www.avadb.com/photos/GouramiScale2.jpg

The second photo doesn't really show the lifted up scale but it shows the
color of the grey spot around the damaged scale. My guess is some sort of
fungus, or is it just a bruise or natural coloring, do fish bruise?

Thanks,

[Miss_Morg]

I would not worry much about it. She might have nicked herself on a decoration or maybe someone nicked her. I would pay more attention to the shark. Red-tailed sharks can get big and slightly hateful. A 75 should give it enough room, but it may eventually get large anough to hunt smaller fish, and may fuss with the cories or loaches. How many inches/cm is it? I have seen the adults kept sucessfully with adult cichlids over 5", but little else. The young ones are suitable for community, however. Check out this link for some anecdotes: http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/gbicolor.html

I would treat the wound with an antibacterial remedy (I like melafix) so that a bacterial infection does not occur. This may damage your nitrifiers if you are not careful. Trichogaster trichopterus is a very hardy fish. They are able to stand very low-oxygen waters. She should recover without a scar, but if she does get worse or show symptoms of a bacterial infection, isolate her and treat her.

If you enjoy overcrowding, you might try cichlids. A technique with cichlids involves putting too many in a tank, and their teritorial tendencies will be spread pretty evenly. I have seen this work in very large tanks and the cichlids have lovely colors.

You sound like a very observant aquarist and you obviously care about your fish. That's really great. How long have you been in the hobby?

Good luck,
Morg

[Zathoros]

Ok, thanks for the reply. I put half the recommended dose of melafix in the
tank. It smelled really strong so I was a bit hesitant to add it. People
should have recommended it to the person that was saying their tank smelled
a few weeks ago, Listerine for your aquarium.

The redtail is about 4 inches including the tail, he's smaller than the
loaches and gouramis. And presently only seems to chase the barbs.

I have only been back in the hobby since I set this tank up. I used to have
guppies when I was a kid though.


"Miss_Morg" > wrote in message
.. .
>
> I would not worry much about it. She might have nicked herself on a
> decoration or maybe someone nicked her. I would pay more attention to
> the shark. Red-tailed sharks can get big and slightly hateful. A 75
> should give it enough room, but it may eventually get large anough to
> hunt smaller fish, and may fuss with the cories or loaches. How many
> inches/cm is it? I have seen the adults kept sucessfully with adult
> cichlids over 5", but little else. The young ones are suitable for
> community, however. Check out this link for some anecdotes:
> http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/gbicolor.html
>
> I would treat the wound with an antibacterial remedy (I like melafix)
> so that a bacterial infection does not occur. This may damage your
> nitrifiers if you are not careful. Trichogaster trichopterus is a very
> hardy fish. They are able to stand very low-oxygen waters. She should
> recover without a scar, but if she does get worse or show symptoms of a
> bacterial infection, isolate her and treat her.
>
> If you enjoy overcrowding, you might try cichlids. A technique with
> cichlids involves putting too many in a tank, and their teritorial
> tendencies will be spread pretty evenly. I have seen this work in very
> large tanks and the cichlids have lovely colors.
>
> You sound like a very observant aquarist and you obviously care about
> your fish. That's really great. How long have you been in the hobby?
>
> Good luck,
> Morg
>
>
> --
> Miss_Morg