large sore on honey gourami

Question
Hi Chris,

I have an Eclipse System 6 tank that has been set up for a little over 1 year. There are 2 Honey Gouramis, 1 Otocinclus, 1 Yoyo Botia, and a large gold mystery snail that have been living in the tank since I set it up. Each week I do a 25% water change and change the filter every couple of weeks or whenever it gets too dirty. I checked the water condition about a month ago and the pH, ammonia, and nitrite levels were all within normal limits.
About 5-6 weeks ago the female honey gourami developed a swelling near her gill that has grown to prety much the whole height of her body. It has reached the dorsal fin and the fish's body started to bend at the swelling. It started as a small dark spot maybe 6 months ago, slowly growing larger (but still flat) until recently when it swelled up and looked like a large welt. The scales around it seemed to have fallen off, and the swelling was red. In the last couple of weeks it has gone down and the area is now white and looks like an open sore, and the fish is still twisted. She still eats normally and is active. The guy at my pet store recommended some fungus medicine, but it hasn't seemed to help. Any ideas on what this is? The male now has a tiny brown spot in the same area. I'd appreciate any help you can offer!

Answer
Hi Carol;

It could be a bacterial infection or could even be cancerous. I would treat with Maracyn-Two, an antibiotic medication and see if it helps. You can run two full courses of it if necessary. You can even use regular Maracyn along with the Maracyn-Two for a "double whammy" since it has advanced so far. Make more frequent water changes, two or three times a week, to help their immune systems. It's perfectly okay to make water changes during treatment. Just do a water change right before you add medicine for that day. Both of those antibiotic medications are decayed within a few hours of adding them. Making a water change right before adding the next dose of medicine only removes old decayed medication. It's not removing anything useful.

The tank is actually overstocked too so the extra water changes probably should be done from now on. Yoyo loaches (botias) grow to be about 4 or 5 inches long and really should be with few of their own kind, 3 or more. I wouldn't keep a group in anything smaller than a 30 gallon. To see his full potential growth and beauty, get him into a larger tank with some other yoyo buddies. Your other fish would love  a larger tank too. Here are links to pages about yoyos;

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/loaches/p/yoyoloach.htm

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile79.html

I hope they feel better soon....

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins