# Unknown disease/parasite on a Pearl Gourami



## mdc928 (Sep 22, 2010)

I need help trying to figure out what is wrong with my male pearl gourami. I think I wrongly treated (Maracide) for ich. 

First he was once in a great while scraping against the plants, then he and the female both started darting around the tank occasionally. Then I noticed about a week and a half ago a white spot behind his gill. There were no other spots on him or any other fish. The white spot looks like a scale rubbed the wrong direction and turned white, only thicker than a scale and about twice as wide. I gave 4 treatments for ich and now I am thinking that it probably is not. 

I tried getting a better photo but he will not sit still long enough for me to get the right angle. 

I do weekly water changes up to 50%. Nitrates are minimal with no nitrites or ammonia. The water is consistantly very hard (off the charts) and ph hovers around 7.2

I feed them a combo of frozen brine shrimp with spirulina, and frozen bloodworms every other day and alternate flake and granules on the off days. 

Other tank inhabitants are 3 platys (Oh yeah, 1 platy died Saturday) 1 very young pleco, 4 ghost shrimp, 2 guppies, 2 african dwarf frogs. I have a lot of wisteria in the back and some anubias in the front.


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## mdc928 (Sep 22, 2010)

You can not see what I am talking about in the photo but I inserted it so that you can see his current general appearance.


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## Romad (Jun 28, 2009)

It's really hard to say without being able to see it. Have you done any research on gill flukes (based on location of whiteness)? He actually looks pretty healthy otherwise.

Why did you rule out ich? I had a recent outbreak and it took about 12 days to treat (9 days until the last of the spots were gone and then continued for three days after).

And only 5 fish out of 30 showed any spots at all and only a few each.


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## mdc928 (Sep 22, 2010)

Romad said:


> It's really hard to say without being able to see it. Have you done any research on gill flukes (based on location of whiteness)? He actually looks pretty healthy otherwise.
> 
> Why did you rule out ich? I had a recent outbreak and it took about 12 days to treat (9 days until the last of the spots were gone and then continued for three days after).
> 
> And only 5 fish out of 30 showed any spots at all and only a few each.


There is only that one white spot on that one fish. That is why I am starting to think it might not be ich. The closest I can get to a description of a disease cauliflower disease. (Sorry I forgot the proper name of the disease) But again with cauliflower disease it is usually a lot more spots and much larger. My pearl has just the one spot, no redness around the gills so I didn't think about gill flukes but judging by his behavior that might be it. I just don't really know what to do.


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## Spooki (Oct 6, 2010)

It's not unheard of to see just a single ich spot. I see that far more often than the full blown "rolled in salt" ich infections at the pet store where I work.

Lymphocystis, the "cauliflower disease" will look like rough white to brown cauliflower like warts and it is brought on by bad water quality. Moving the fish to clean water will cause the condition to go away over the course of several months. Lymphocystis should be very noticeable. 

The scraping makes me think ich is more likely. Also, since your water quality seems to be good as far as A-Ni-Na goes it's probably not Lympho.


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## mdc928 (Sep 22, 2010)

Ok thank you for the response. I am going to try and get some video and post it today. I just don't want to treat for a whole bunch of different things and mess up the water and do more harm than good.


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## mdc928 (Sep 22, 2010)

Spooki said:


> It's not unheard of to see just a single ich spot. I see that far more often than the full blown "rolled in salt" ich infections at the pet store where I work.
> 
> Lymphocystis, the "cauliflower disease" will look like rough white to brown cauliflower like warts and it is brought on by bad water quality. Moving the fish to clean water will cause the condition to go away over the course of several months. Lymphocystis should be very noticeable.
> 
> The scraping makes me think ich is more likely. Also, since your water quality seems to be good as far as A-Ni-Na goes it's probably not Lympho.


I got a video of it, I hope it shows well enough.


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## mdc928 (Sep 22, 2010)

Is anyone able to tell anything from that video?


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## Spooki (Oct 6, 2010)

I watched the video twice and couldn't see anything unusual.


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## mdc928 (Sep 22, 2010)

Ok maybe I am just being paranoid. Thanks for having a look.


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