Lymphocystis Or Something Else?

[Better is Betta]

I've seen a couple of post regarding this disease. Apparently its quite a common problem in fish and a lot of people think that once your fish has signs of it, its doomed.

I'm pretty sure my fish Mini has this problem although I'm no expert in diagnosing exotic diseases other than the common problems that appear time to time.

I've read a lot of articles on Lymph. Also this disease can resemble other types of diseases as well. One that comes to mind is Epithelliocystisis. Same symptoms as lymph with the cauliflower growths etc. Mainly found in carp and cyprinids and can affect catfish and loach species whereas lymph is not infective to the catfish and loach s. Reading one particular article, epith was treatable with Acriflavine neutral.

All in a nut shell Lymph is not treatable with medication. But I wouldn't stop trying to treat it just in case its something else that resembles the disease.

If all else fails as it did in my case don't despair because your fish can live a normal life with the disease. The only time your fish will have trouble is if the growth is covering the gill the mouth and the eye areas, that will be fatal.

The only thing that can be done to beat this problem is to make sure your water is kept in good condition. Take away anything that may stress your fish. I even added a vitamin supplement to the water and Vitamin c is one recommendation.

Mini is 15months old and the growth you see on her has been with her for 6 months. It started off with a small scratch and as you can see in the pics has become enormous. I'm still waiting for the disease to take its course and disappear......but its been a long time. So Im thinking maybe its not lymph......maybe its a virus like verruca. The only way this horrible thing is going to leave is by surgery.

Have a look at the pics and tell me what you think the problem is Lymphocystis or something else?

This is mini on her bad side

This is mini on her good side

Mini doesn't think she has a problem. She is swimming around unhindered and eating well.

 

[Flute]

Oh bless her, such a pretty girl too. I haven't had any experience with lymphocystis so can't really comment on whether it is or not, but it's great to hear that she's doing well regardless.

 

[Better is Betta]

Oh bless her, such a pretty girl too. I haven't had any experience with lymphocystis so can't really comment on whether it is or not, but it's great to hear that she's doing well regardless.

Thank you. She is a dragon which I bred and it sort of got me stumped as to why she got the disease and all her brothers and sisters are free from any signs of it. But lymph is a virus and although the others have no signs probably doesn't mean it won't show up. I guess if their immune system is down a bit then it might. It will be interesting to see if it gets any bigger, but I'm praying that it will eventually go away.

 

[Baccus]

I am amazed that she is able to swim without listing to one side

. Do you find that she ever rests on that side or does she tend to stay more upright?

 

[Better is Betta]

I am amazed that she is able to swim without listing to one side

. Do you find that she ever rests on that side or does she tend to stay more upright?

No she seems to do everything a normal fish does. I am amazed she doesn't show signs that she is hindered. I keep thinking something like that on her must be a real drag....but no she doesn't seem to know its there.

 

[Flute]

If you send Star4 a PM she might be able to give you any tips on how to deal with lymphocystis- she battled it with her group of Texas cichlids for a number of months. Sadly they didn't make it, but she was able to keep them comfortable and free from any secondary infections for a very long time.

 

[Better is Betta]

If you send Star4 a PM she might be able to give you any tips on how to deal with lymphocystis- she battled it with her group of Texas cichlids for a number of months. Sadly they didn't make it, but she was able to keep them comfortable and free from any secondary infections for a very long time.

Ok I'll keep that in mind thanks

 

[star4]

Hi I got your pm, sadly yes it looks like lymphosistis to me, its horrific and not a lot you can do, no medications touch it. Best options are thorough gravel vaccing and small daily wc (if possible) ensure you use a good dechlorinator that does chlorine and chloramine. As its on the outside of her she can manage, it just looks unsightly, however if it gets internal you have no hope (sorry to be brutal ) I battled for 10 months + to save my texas cichlids, but one by one they sucummed. Once its internal she will loose colour rapidly and the kindest thing would be to euthanise her. I did have a fair bit of sucess with feeding garlic laced foods to my texas, with it being a virus the garlic helped boost their immune system, you can also try vitazim (made by waterlife) soak her food in a little, its full of extra vitamins to help her fight the virus. With feeding garlic and vitazin laced foods the lumps dropped off, but the tiniest scratch on the skin allows the virus to take hold again. Squabbling cichlids kept getting re-infected and I didnt have 6 spare tanks to seperate them all , you could try seperating her to a completely bare tank, no substrate plants anything so she cannot get re-infected if the garlic starts to work, but you will need to be very careful if you put her back in the main tank.

It is a species specific virus so any other species of fish in the tank will not be affected, but any other betta are at risk, or maybe carrying the virus, and if you do loose her and add another betta chances are the virus will affect them also as it can live in the tank for months if not years.

I hope this helps, best of luck she is a beautiful fish.

 

[Better is Betta]

Hi I got your pm, sadly yes it looks like lymphosistis to me, its horrific and not a lot you can do, no medications touch it. Best options are thorough gravel vaccing and small daily wc (if possible) ensure you use a good dechlorinator that does chlorine and chloramine. As its on the outside of her she can manage, it just looks unsightly, however if it gets internal you have no hope (sorry to be brutal

) I battled for 10 months + to save my texas cichlids, but one by one they sucummed. Once its internal she will loose colour rapidly and the kindest thing would be to euthanise her. I did have a fair bit of sucess with feeding garlic laced foods to my texas, with it being a virus the garlic helped boost their immune system, you can also try vitazim (made by waterlife) soak her food in a little, its full of extra vitamins to help her fight the virus. With feeding garlic and vitazin laced foods the lumps dropped off, but the tiniest scratch on the skin allows the virus to take hold again. Squabbling cichlids kept getting re-infected and I didnt have 6 spare tanks to seperate them all

, you could try seperating her to a completely bare tank, no substrate plants anything so she cannot get re-infected if the garlic starts to work, but you will need to be very careful if you put her back in the main tank.

It is a species specific virus so any other species of fish in the tank will not be affected, but any other betta are at risk, or maybe carrying the virus, and if you do loose her and add another betta chances are the virus will affect them also as it can live in the tank for months if not years.

I hope this helps, best of luck she is a beautiful fish.

Thank you for your input

Mini is in her own tank because of that problem. I will give the garlic a go and I read that vitamin c is good to add to the tank water.
Yes I am afraid the disease could go internal but I'm hoping its staying mainly on the outside.
She's the most spoiled fish out of all of them.......I want her to get the best so if she does die, at least half her life was a life of luxury.

 

[brendalee2]

Hi all. I'm a naive first-time betta owner, but I love my guy and I'm in the same boat as some of you with a possible lymphocystis situation going on. I've snapped a few photos here to showcase his latest condition.

I've had him for about a year--year and a quarter. Within the past two months little McLovin started exhibiting some symptoms. First he developed a cloudy eye---something I believe is now categorized as a cataract. It covers all of his left eye, and he's recently developed a small white spot on the right eye. It makes seeing food a bit difficult. I've cut back on the huge amounts of food (bad mommy!) I used to feed him. I've now drastically reduced that to a 3-pellet max every other day and only feed a bloodworm once a week as opposed to 7-8 per feeding. I'm also doing 25-50% water changes twice a week.

Well over a month ago, he developed this white mass that appears to be 'bursting' from his dorsal fin. We've been doing 20 second methylene blue dips with him pretty much every day. My husband thinks it has helped, but I'm not convinced that it's doing too much. I've also added salt to his tank, and a couple of drops of bettafix. He is in a non-heated (but 73 degree home constant temp) 3.5 gallon, non-aerated tank. I bought a bubblestone, but haven't turned it on with him in it since he's totally used to a quiet environment, and I had read earlier (when I was trying to diagnose) that it wouldn't be good to have this on if he had an aerobic bacterial infection. I'm posting a few pics so that others can see and comment. I've heard things about vitamin C (can we use human grade powder? what dosage?), regular vitamins, and dechlorination. I've been using a water conditioner with my water (Nutrafin Betta Plus) that makes the tap water safe, and I occasionally add some mineral renewal. I'm switching from spoiling with food to spoiling with medicine---as I feel guilty for not knowing more about how to feed/treat him. Hoping we'll be able to cure this with time, close attention, and high maintenance care. McLovin is like a member of our family. He's really cool!

)

 

[Better is Betta]

Hi all. I'm a naive first-time betta owner, but I love my guy and I'm in the same boat as some of you with a possible lymphocystis situation going on. I've snapped a few photos here to showcase his latest condition.

I've had him for about a year--year and a quarter. Within the past two months little McLovin started exhibiting some symptoms. First he developed a cloudy eye---something I believe is now categorized as a cataract. It covers all of his left eye, and he's recently developed a small white spot on the right eye. It makes seeing food a bit difficult. I've cut back on the huge amounts of food (bad mommy!) I used to feed him. I've now drastically reduced that to a 3-pellet max every other day and only feed a bloodworm once a week as opposed to 7-8 per feeding. I'm also doing 25-50% water changes twice a week.

Well over a month ago, he developed this white mass that appears to be 'bursting' from his dorsal fin. We've been doing 20 second methylene blue dips with him pretty much every day. My husband thinks it has helped, but I'm not convinced that it's doing too much. I've also added salt to his tank, and a couple of drops of bettafix. He is in a non-heated (but 73 degree home constant temp) 3.5 gallon, non-aerated tank. I bought a bubblestone, but haven't turned it on with him in it since he's totally used to a quiet environment, and I had read earlier (when I was trying to diagnose) that it wouldn't be good to have this on if he had an aerobic bacterial infection. I'm posting a few pics so that others can see and comment. I've heard things about vitamin C (can we use human grade powder? what dosage?), regular vitamins, and dechlorination. I've been using a water conditioner with my water (Nutrafin Betta Plus) that makes the tap water safe, and I occasionally add some mineral renewal. I'm switching from spoiling with food to spoiling with medicine---as I feel guilty for not knowing more about how to feed/treat him. Hoping we'll be able to cure this with time, close attention, and high maintenance care. McLovin is like a member of our family. He's really cool!

)

Sorry I missed this post.... Its a bit hard to see the condition of McLovin ....any chance of a closer photo? It looks a bit like popeye but I can't tell for sure. It could be the way the light is reflecting, giving me a totally different image.

As you may have read in the previous comments lymph is viral and there is no medication that will cure it. What I've read about this virus is it can affect any part of the body and it is not good if it attacks the eyes mouth and gill area. I think it does cause popeye if its on the eye area. Also it can go internal and if that happens then it will be tragic. There's another post on the forum regarding this disease started by Chelsieb.....you may like to look at if you haven't already.

Sorry If I'm not much help with your problem as I have the same issues with my little Mini. I can only say keep up with the good water conditions and yes no over feeding.. avoid.anything that will cause stress. I do put in vitamin c and yes just the one we eat and also a multi vitamin. But I only put a very small pinch in the filter system or sprinkle it on top of the water. I don't know if it works but it hasn't caused any problems so far. It might pay you to inquire about adding vitamins before you do it. I don't want to advise you to do it as I am not an expert when it comes to dosage. You have to take in brands, strength per tablet etc. It may have a different affect on your fish.

Have you tried an antibiotic? Sometimes there are other infections that look similar to lymp and it wouldn't hurt to give a course of antibiotic just in case it is bacterial.

Lets hope McLovin s immune system combats the problem and he makes a full recovery. I haven't given up on my girl she certainly is a littler battler. She is still pretty active and lively and coping well.

All the best.

 

[brendalee2]

Thank you for the kind words, F-ah. Is the growth on mini expanding every day? McLovin seems to have subsided (so far) with this small 'burst'. But I have no way of knowing how much of it might be inside of him versus on the outside like yours. I posted the same pics in a higher res here: www.flickr.com/photos/12661172@N00/8226404588/in/photostream/. No. I haven't tried maracyn -- I've used the bettafix, have subsided the methylene dips (for now) and am concentrating on keeping the water clean, basting out any waste that I can see and removing and adding 1/5 or so of the water every other day.

The eye doesn't look much like popeye. It doesn't bulge out---it's just kind of clouded over. I'm hoping it wasn't because of some sun rays that may have caught him on a regular basis. I don't keep a light in my tank.

I may check into that verruca, to see if it is similar. And I may do a meth dip every now and then, and see if some beneficial bacteria will assist. I hope McLovin will be as happy as your Mini seems to be! Thank you for your advice!

 

[Better is Betta]

I couldn't view your pic, looks like it didn't work or I'm doing something wrong. The growth on Mini seems to have stabilised. No sign of it bursting and she has had it for 6 months. I'm afraid if it did burst there would be nothing left of her. Another thing that worries me is that the bubbling or cauliflower affect has reached right down to her egg tube. I'm scared that once it attacks that area it will head internally.

To me it sounds like your fish is responding well to the treatment you are giving him. He doesn't have it bad and showing signs with the bursting that he may recover from it.
The reason I mentioned verruca is that it has the same sort of rough cauliflower affect and is also a virus. But verrucas are mainly found on us. I haven't heard of fish having them it just looks like a huge wart surrounding Minis side.

Let me know how McLovin is going over the next few weeks......keep us posted on his progress

 

[brendalee2]

Mini is a trooper!!! I'm not sure verruca is what we have. There are so many options of disease that these things are hard to nailndown. Unfortunately we pulled back on our meth blue treatments since we didn't want to stress too much. Want to
Get ampicillin but can't find it anywhere

Now mclovin has popeye. Will try another meth treatment later tonight. Just feel guilty and bad for him. Hope he stabilizes like mini. I can live with ugly but want him to be able to see his food (which he cannot) and be happy.

Where is mini's egg tube???