Gourami with white raised lesion on head

[junkelly]

Hello everyone

I have a gourami which has developed a lesion on it's forehead. The lesion is white and raised with a 'lip' around it.

It was first noticed ~10 days ago a day or two after a 30-50% water change. One of the gourami was noted to frantically swim against the corner of the tank during the water change. I'm assuming it was this one. The lesion has slowly grown in size since then.

There have been several additions of fish and plants to the tank lately (in the last two months) without quarantine. The gourami were the last to be added 4-6 weeks ago.

There are two other gourami and about 20 tetra, none with lesions.

The affected fish is behaving, swimming, and eating normally.

I guess an infectious disease is possible, but no other fish are affected. I looked at an online guide of infectious diseases and none of them seem to be a match.

I'm hoping that this lesion may be due to trauma. I've hoped it would get better, but it has actually gotten worse. Maybe the initial trauma left him susceptible to an opportunistic infection that the other fish aren't suffering from because they didn't traumatize their skin.

The tank is a 55g with undergravel filter. I have liquid test kits for pH and ammonia, which are zero and 6.8-7.0. I have dipstick tests for other parameters, which are normal. The temperature is set to 76F.

I'm most concerned if I need to immediately remove him due to an infectious threat to the other fish, or if it's ok to 'wait and see'.

I'd appreciate thoughts from anyone else.

Thanks,
junkelly

[dkpate]

Check out hole in the head disease. One of my DG's had it (I believe) but I was too late to treat it. It's kind of funny, because mine looked JUST like yours, and had a wound in the same spot. Mine also had one up by his dorsal fin too though.
Is there any way he could have gotten burnt by the heater?

[eyring2210]

My Male Blue Gourami has had similar spots at times. The best I can figure out is that when He gets spooked He has the tendency to run into things and get injured. The spots look pretty rough for a week or so and then they slowly heal up.

[HN1]

That looks like a wound to me. From either other tank inhabitants or decor. Clean water should heal him up.

[BigJim]

+1 It looks similar to the marks my raphael cat would get when he'd snuggle up to the heater.

[Jason7894561230]

Just wanted to say nice looking fish!

[junkelly]

Followup, FYI


Well I waited another week and half or so and the lesion didn't improve, and may have gotten bigger.

I had him professionally euthanized and necropsied.

The necropsy results show that in addition to the visible spot, there were microscopic lesions in the muscles, liver, spleen, and kidneys. The definitive result was:

Disseminated Mycobacteriosis

They didn't explicitly say it was Mycobacterium marinum, but maybe that's just assumed.

So now I've got to read about this disease and what to do about it, if anything.
I guess I'll also start wearing long gloves when handling things.

[vic021]

Why wear gloves?

[dkpate]

Crazy!

Sorry about your fish.

[HN1]

Junkelly- Wow! Who performed the necropsy? I've looked for someone in this area in the past, I'd love to have a future option.


Vic- This is why... mycobacterium marinum pictures - Google Search

[vic021]

Originally Posted by HN1

Junkelly- Wow! Who performed the necropsy? I've looked for someone in this area in the past, I'd love to have a future option.


Vic- This is why... mycobacterium marinum pictures - Google Search

Looks bad thought he meant that him putting his hands in the tank gave the fish the illness... How do fish get that disease

[junkelly]

I had the euthanasia done by a veterinarian who submitted it to the college of veterinary medicine for thorough necropsy.

I haven't done too much research yet, but it appears Mycobacterium is endemic. That means it may have been in my tank all along, or it may be in any of the pet store's tanks, and we wouldn't know if we didn't test for it (which I'm sure is prohibitively expensive). I was considering eradication, but that doesn't seem feasible. Even if I were to sterilize my tank and supplies, the disease could come in with any new purchase.

I read that labyrinthine fish like gourami are more susceptible. It could be that all of my fish have the bacteria but this fellow succumbed to the disease due to some other reason, like stress or trauma.

I still think I'll wear gloves. And yes--to protect me, not them.

-junkelly