White Lumps on Parrot Cichlids Face

[drlowdon]

Hi, a few days ago I noticed a white lump protruding from the nostril of one of my parrot cichlid. Since then he has had lumps continuously forming on his face and the whole area looks very swollen. He also seems to have become much more shy and at feeding time he doesn’t rush to eat with the rest of the fish like he used to.

I’ve attached a couple of pictures if anyone knows what it could be.

 

[Guest14017]

To me, that looks like Hexamita HITHD. This is not to be trifled with. For Hexamita, the general medication used is Metronidazole. Ordinarily you would want to make the medication into a feed and feed for 14 days or so. I would remove him to hospital immediately as this condition can spread.

I realize some here are against antibiotics for fish, and I also realize that many cannot acquire them. You can move him to a clean and lightly salted tank (.1% salinity for starters) and see if he shows improvement before treating with medication if you want.

It COULD be a festering injury, but it is hard to tell at this point. But it really does look like early stage HITHD.

 

[drlowdon]

Thanks for your reply, I’m going to take pictures down to my local aquarium tomorrow and see what they say. I do have a spare tank which I could keep him in if there is a danger it could spread to the other fish and then medicate him as well if required.