Strange Lumps On Rainbowfish

[Dana C]

Hi,

I have 1 dwarf neon rainbow fish left after the other 4 died of whitespot. She recovered from that but has now developed some kind of growth on the base of her tail. There is a pink patch on both sides of her tail with a cluster of lumpy spots on one side.

I have looked on some websites to see if I could work out what is was and it looks like cauliflower disease to me, sorry don't remember the real name. It did get a little fungus on it a couple of days ago and I am treating with protozin which has got rid of that.

She is swimming with the danios and is eating but I don't know if i can do anything to get rid of the growth or know if it is deadly or not.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[WILDER]

Sadly it does sound like cauliflower desease.

http/www.fishjunkies.com/Infections/viral.php#nodes

 

[Dana C]

Thanks for your reply,

It says that stress can bring on this condition so won't moving the fish and putting it on it's own make it worse?

It has had these lumps for about a month and they haven't got any bigger so do you think there is a chance that this is the worse it is going to get?

I read the links and thanks for that and one of them said leave the fish and it goes on it's own, do you have any idea how long this takes?

 

[WILDER]

I would remove him from the tank and issolate incase the growths rupture into the tank.
Look under lymphocystiis
http/www.fish-disease.net/diseases.htm

Sorry its the other way round, you would need quite a big tank to remove all the healthy fish though.

 

[Dana C]

Thanks I read the link,

I have just read your edit and there is no way I can remove all the healthy fish so should I just leave her in there?

It says about using malachite green should I try this?

 

[WILDER]

Its up to you but i would see if you can find a cheap tank for them, though then it has to cycle could end up losing more fish to the cycle.
Never had to deal with lymphocystiis so don't really know about the meds, but if you think it worth a try go for it.
Though some fish don't tolerate malachite green to well so read instructions carefully.

 

[Dana C]

We have no where to put another large tank even for a short time unfortunally.

Just had a quick look at some other sites and 1 site said use waterlifes paragon, do you think this would do any good?
Also seachems paraguard says it can be used for viral infections?

I am really wishing I never got those rainbow fish now, way to stressful.

 

[WILDER]

You could try it but don't believe everything waterlife says, they even have a med for ntd and there no cure for that.
http/www.waterlife.co.uk/waterlife/paragon.htm

 

[Dana C]

Okay, I might try the seachems paragurd then. It can't hurt to try.

The only positive thing is I read it normally affects fish when stressed and all my other fish are happy and healthy so I might be lucky. I am guessing this fish got it because she had white spot all her friends died and she was left on her own.

If anybody has had this condition before in there tanks could you please let me know how you got on.

Thanks Wilder for your help.

 

[WILDER]

Dani ask in tropical chit chat some members have dealt with lymphocystiis.
Alot more members go over there than here.
Best of luck.

 

[WILDER]

http/www.aquarticles.com/articles/manage...mphocystis.html

 

[nmonks]

Wilder's given some great advice and information there. Nothing much to add, except that don't get too worried. "Lympho" doesn't really kill fish, it isn't particularly catchy, and for some reason only advanced fish seem to get it, not stuff like tetras and catfish. It's usually cichlids or gobies or rainbows.

It does go away by itself usually, but that takes months, sometimes years. Personally, I wouldn't waste my money on treatments. It's viral, and they're unlikely to have any effect. Better to figure out the trigging condition (often wrong water chemistry or poor water/gravel cleanliness) and act accordingly. Getting the conditions right seems to be the road to recovery.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[Dana C]

Thanks nmonks for your reply,

Would you leave the fish in the main tank then and hope for the best if it isn't suffering?

I have checked my water and there is no problem with that I think I just bought a bad batch of fish because 4 of the 5 died in 2 weeks of buying them.

I have 4 dwarf rainbow in a quarantine tank which I bought a month ago just before mine got the lumps, I don't know if I should add them to my tank or not. Maybe having other rainbow fish to swim with will help her but I don't want to infect them aswell.

Sometimes fish keeping is so hard.

 

[nmonks]

This is a very tough call. On the one hand, lympho isn't normally very contagious, and so you tend to get just one fish in the tank with it. I had a goby with it not so long ago, and none of the other fishes, even other gobies, showed any signs of trouble. However, almost never contagious isn't the same thing as absolutely not contagious, so quaratining the sick fish is a good idea.

If this was me, what I'd probably do was put the new fish into the old tank and the sick fish into the quarantine tank, at least for a while. Give the main tank a really good clean. While you can't do much with the filter, you can take the gravel out and give it a good wash with hot, soapy water and then a thorough rinse with clean water to wash away the soap. For whatever reason, dirty gravel seems to be a trigger for the lympho, which is possibly present in all fishes, but only becomes a problem in specific situations. One explanation of many supposed cases of lympho is that the warts are in fact a benign tumour that forms in response to irritants such as heavy metals or certain bacteria. The reason for saying this is that most cases of tumours and lympho seen in the wild are in polluted rivers and seas.

In the meantime, the sick rainbow in the quarantine should be given the best possible diet. If the warts are on the fins, you can actually cut them off safely. While certainly stressful for the fish, the fin will heal back very quickly. Otherwise, the tumours will gradually fade away by themselves. Provided the tumours aren't stopping your fish being happy, then don't worry about it. They're fairly benign growths, and don't seem to cause illness or death unless on the gills or mouth, for example.

After a few weeks, and if your new rainbows look happy enough, you might decide to chance putting the sick rainbow back in the big tank. The odds are good that everything will be fine. Realistically, you can't quarantine one rainbow for the months or years it'll take to get better, so me advising that is a bit silly. But what you might do is keep that rainbow only with "primitive" fish -- tetras, carps, minnows, catfish, loaches, and so on -- which don't seem to get lympho nearly as often as "advanced" fish like rainbows, cichlids, or tropical marine fish.

Cheers,

Neale

I have 4 dwarf rainbow in a quarantine tank which I bought a month ago just before mine got the lumps, I don't know if I should add them to my tank or not. Maybe having other rainbow fish to swim with will help her but I don't want to infect them aswell.

 

[Dana C]

Thanks,

I think that is what I will do and that way I can make sure the sick rainbow fish doesn't get any bacterial problems aswell.
The lumps are where the tail joins the body so I can't cut them off, I don't think I would trust myself to do this anyway.
Luckily my fish are tetras, danios, cories and harlequins so they should be ok then.
I have sand at the bottom of my tank so that doesn't get as dirty as gravel can and I seem to remove the top layer whenever I vac it so that should help.

How did your goby get on? hope it was allright.