Gourami fin and spotted wood

[fishlung]

I've been perusing this site for about an hour and I'm really impressed with the community here. Sometimes I just love the frickin' interweb!

First of all, hello there. I'm getting back into the hobby after many years. I've had my 55g tank set up for a couple months. Things are swell. Sorta. I had some platies for about a week, before they died unexpectedly, with absolutely no signs or symptoms to speak of. Literally fine before bed, and dead in the morning. One a day, for five days. Very depressing... Anyway, this is off topic rambling. The reason for the post:

I have a female 3-spot gourami, and I'm pretty sure the base of her fins weren't reddish before... Though my memory/eyes could have deceived me. But I was curious if anyone could put my worries to rest on this. It looks like inflammation, or blood vessels, in a way. She's also flashing/rubbing against the filter tubing occasionally, too. Not good.

My other question is this: I have this piece of wood, which has been in the tank for about a month now. A few days ago I noticed some white spots on it. Like little eggs, or bits of sand, or whatever. I haven't the slightest clue as to what it is. I'm hoping it's nothing bad. I'm fully expecting it to be, though.
click for a photo

Thanks for your time!

 

[Menagerie]

[center:8c0b506a32] Welcome to AA, fishlung! [/center:8c0b506a32]
Give some background on the tank by answering these Qs:
~What are your tank parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temp)?
~ How large is the tank?
~How many fish are in the tank? What kinds of fish are they and what are there current sizes?
~When is the last time you did a water change and vacuum the gravel? How often do you do this? How much water do you remove at a time?
~How long have you had the fish?
~Have you added anything new to the tank--decor, new dechlor, new substrate, etc.?

I have a female 3-spot gourami, and I'm pretty sure the base of her fins weren't reddish before.... It looks like inflammation, or blood vessels, in a way. She's also flashing/rubbing against the filter tubing occasionally, too.

That's not good. It looks like it could be Septicemia. Look at this link:
http://www.aquatronicsonline.com/hobbyist/hobbyist3.htm
The second one down is what I believe it is. I recommend Kanacyn or a kanamycin (sp) based med. It can be put in food, which will deliver the needed meds much quicker. QT this fish right away and look over your other fish closely. Don't forget to answer the Qs above, so we can try to figure out why the fish was infected.

The white dots look like fish eggs, once I know what other fish are in the tank, we can figure out who the eggs belong to.

 

[fishlung]

Thanks!

Ammonia, nitrite(ates) are all good. pH is about 7, perhaps 6.8.
It's a very clean 55 gal. tank containing about 30 fish:
1 angel (like an old dog), 1 gourami (very peaceful), 12+ neons, 1 tiger barb (peaceful), 5 rummy nose, 3 khuli loaches, 6 white clouds, 1 platy, 2 serpae. Extremely peaceful community. The angel and gourami are the largest, maybe 4 in or bigger. The tiger barb is a couple inches, but peaceful (usually schools with the rummys or serpae tetras). There's a decent amount of plant life going on. I try to do a 50% water change every 10 days. They seem to enjoy it. The only new things added to the water recently are a few neon tetras and a new plant (both from an extremely reputable aquarium shop - I never shop at Petco or any of those death-tank stores).

I also thought it might be septicemia, and I definitely considered setting up a hospital tank, but I wasn't sure exactly if I was dreaming or not. This morning the gourami's fins look way less red. So, we'll see what things look like when I get home today. The flashing/rubbing is occasional, but that still doesn't bode well. I think I'll do a PWC tonight anyway. Can't hurt.

Fish eggs, you think? I would think the other fish would find them appetizing if that were the case. I was thinking some scary disease.

 

[fishlung]

Well, I still don't know what these things are.
click for a photo

They're so tiny, like grains of salt or what have you. It's crazy. However, after a recent water change, I sucked up a bunch of them, so I'm a little less worried... My platy was eating some of them, too. So, I suppose they're edible. But none of the other fish touch the stuff. I'm really confused. Oh well. 8O