Gourami Help Please

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I have a pearl gourami that I recently purchased in a qt right now. I found him 4 nights ago stuck to the extra intake section at the top of my penguin 350, so I closed it. I didn't think he would survive after that night but he seems to be doing much better, however he still has redness between his gill and his eye. When I unplugged the filter to let him swim off of the intake, he could barely swim and one of his antennae was pressed firmly against his side. When I put him in the QT both sides of him were red between the gills and the eyes and that area seemed to be generally swollen. Now, I've given him a salt bath the last 2 days and changed the qt water 50% everyday. His condition seems to be improving, but when I compare him to other pearl gouramis he still doesn't look up to par. I've read so many disease descriptions and forum posts I have no idea what I'm dealing with here. I've taken several pictures of him but I don't think any really show it. Edit: The qt has a sponge filter, a cheap neon cave, some used filter media, and a heater.