Weather Loach Huge Lump

[Tess123]

Hi, I have a poorly weather loach, I have had him over ten years and he has always been very healthy until about 3 months ago a small lump appeared on his head and has gradually got bigger and bigger and now has a white patch on it that looks like it is an open sore. He still is very active, feeds fine and doesn't seem in anyway bothered by it. Should I be quarantining him? I would be very grateful for any advice thank you.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

What substrate is in his tank?
 
What are the tank details? Temperature, size, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH readings?

 

[star4]

It does look like some sort of tumour to me, I had a sengal birchir with a lump for a couple of years. With it being open now you need to keep a close eye on it for any infection, redness on the skin, fluff things like that and use medication if needed and keep your water clean. Where that lump is it is not affecting anything vital at the moment. If it gets further down to his gill plate it might be kinder to euthanise him
 
or..
 
It could be, what I call, a fish zit. I have a chocolate cichlid (rescued from a tiny tank and he is stunted) that gets this similar sort of lump regularly from under his bottom jaw or around his anus. I have no idea what causes it but after a couple of months it goes away on its own.
 
I dont think there is a need to quarantine him in this case just clean water, clean water, clean water hope this helps.

 

[Tess123]

Thanks for the advice, fingers crossed it will go away. I will keep an eye on it & as you suggest keep the water as clean as possible. Leonie, sorry I haven't got any water testing kits but the tank is 90ltrs with a few inches of gravel, I moved him into this tank a couple of years ago as he outlived his goldfish friends and now lives in the tropical tank which is 24-25 degrees, maybe too warm for him?

 

[star4]

90l is small for a weather loach, they are highly active fish and although they can easily tollerate the warmer water, cooler is preferred. I am pretty sure that he is a she though fingers crossed it is just a fatty lump that does disappear

 

[Memphase2690]

we have owned loaches since I was an infant, and I've never seen anything like this before. our current loach is in a 20gal with three ottos a baby clown pleco and a swordtail. once we had a loach that developed a red spot in it's middle after two days. it ended up dying and we were all heartbroken, so I feel your need to know whats wrong. try to get a test kit, you really never know what it could be. does he have any other fish with him? i'm not saying he's getting picked on or anything, but maybe it could be some crazy allergy or something; I mean, I discovered I'm allergic to spiders a few days ago, so it's possible. I asked my mom if she'd seen anything like it, and she said no. but she had read something sort of like this. a lady had a loach that developed a "blister" on it's underside that grew and grew then eventually popped and fell off, and her loach recovered from it. I'm not sure if the result on the head would be the same though . just keep an eye on it and see how your loach does.