Bumblebee guppy bump on head

[Michael Ricci]

Hi, I’ve had my fish for over 4 months. 55 gallon tank with 1 other female, 6 baby bumblebee guppies and 1 ghost shrimp.

He’s had a bump on his head for over 3 weeks and hasn’t acted weird. His bump looks a bit bigger and he’s now sitting in a corner. He was doing the same yesterday but came out to eat and acted normal after that.

I do water changes every 2 weeks sometimes 3 max. I don’t have any testing kits.

Attached is an image

Any help please i love this little guy

 

[Michael Ricci]

I just fed the tank and it took him some time but he came out to eat.

 

[Michael Ricci]

It started as a bump then it looked like his scales were coming off and now it looks like cotton is sticking out of his head

 

[Michael Ricci]

I gave him a quick salt bath with aquarium salt. I used 1 gallon of the tank water and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Only put him in for 1 min 10 seconds. When I took him out and put him back in tank his white spots were reddish and they turned pink after 5 minutes then turned back to white. Is this normal or did the salt hurt him? He seems to be swimming more now but is scared of me

 

[FishGuest5123]

White tuft sounds fungal. Do you have any methylene blue by chance? You could get a cotton swab and dab it with some.

 

[Sarah73]

Those aren't guppies. Looks more like platies/mollies to me. Is it fuzzy? Hard?

 

[Colin_T]

The fish has fungus or excess mucous on its head. What other fish are in the tank?

Livebearers need hard alkaline water with a pH above 7.0 and a GH above 200ppm (250ppm for mollies). What is the pH and general hardness (GH) of the water?

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You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have guppies or livebearers in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and increase it after 48 hours if there is no improvement so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers.
The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.

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To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.
When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Wipe the inside of the glass down, do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean. And clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.