Help Needed Diagnosing Dwarf Gourami Injury/Illness

[Peek-A-Boo]

Hello all, I'm looking for some assistance in identifying a problem with my female dwarf gourami.

I've had a pair of dwarf gourami for a week. Early today I noticed the female had a small sore/wound just beneath her pelvic fins. Pale pinkish in colour and circular, perhaps 4mm in diameter. I checked on her again six hours later and the sore has become more pronounced and redder. There was a slight pinkness in that area that I noticed when I first purchased her, but I assumed it to be a slight graze that was healing. It was barely visible at all until today when it became a real wound. I've heard of Dwarf Gourami Indovirus, but have been unable to find suitable references for a clear diagnosis of that.

The male and female recently spawned but the bubble nest was disrupted. The male rebuilt and clearly would like to spawn again, but the female is unable. He does chase her around a fair bit, but I've never actually seen overt aggression or nipping from him.

The female's behaviour has been quite normal. She eats well, swims well. Mostly spends her time between floating around my plants, but she also spends a fair amount of time helping the cories to rummage through food on the gravel.

The tank is a 54L/14 us gallons, 3 stage tank top filtration, substrate is mostly-rounded 2-5mm gravel. The tankmates to the gourami are 6 xray tetra and 5 corydoras habrosus. The setup is about 5 weeks old, readings are as follows:

Temp: 26°C/78.8F
pH: 7.4
Nitrate: 5ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Ammonia: Between 0-0.25ppm (colour is between the two values on API master kit)

I wonder if the injury was caused by/has been worsened by her tendency to go down to the gravel to seek food. She does eat decent portions, from my hand infact, so I don't think she scavenges out of starvation. Her diet is a mix of flake, frozen bloodworms and sinking cory tablets.

I'll be conducting a 30% water change in a moment to drop the ammonia level down. The tank should be closing in on the end of its cycle now.

Can anybody help to shed some light onto what the problem might be, and how to resolve it? I've added a picture of her. It's not easy to get a good shot with my phone camera, but it at least indicates the size, location and colouration of the injury.

Thank you.

 

[Fishdude3233]

I would just keep the water prestine, and moniter her. it could be a cut that became more pronounced with the travel. if it starts to get gungas I would quaritine her, and dose with methylene blue

 

[AlexS]

Is she going to the toilet alright? It seems to be around the area where they defecate from.
If so it might be an internal/bacterial infection. You can feed her cut up garlic or blanched peas with the skin removed.

 

[Peek-A-Boo]

Hi folks, thanks for the responses so far.

The female gourami was a little subdued last night, sleeping close to the bottom of the tank beneath a mopani root. Today she's behaving quite normally, with a good appetite and swimming around the tank as usual. The wound is still quite raw looking, although I don't think it's substantially worsened since yesterday.

In response to AlexS, her poop looks normal and the wound starts about 5mm/0.2in in front of the anus.

 

[Peek-A-Boo]

Here's a second, -slightly- clearer image of the wound. Today it appears slightly larger and both gourami are slightly bloated. Feeding them shelled peas and doing another 25% water to change to see if there's improvement tomorrow.

 

[Peek-A-Boo]

Update:

It's two weeks on now from my original post, and the situation has worsened. It's gotten to the point where it looks like something has actually taken a bite out of her (nothing has).

I've attached a new and better focused image in the hopes that somebody here might have some idea of what is going on. I'll have some methylene blue arriving tomorrow to attempt to treat her.