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Hi all.

Tonight I noticed a raised red pimple-like mass just in front of my yellow lab's tail (one side only). It is localized to just that area without any streaking. He is acting fine and eating well. No other fish in the tank appear to have this. I have been considering:

1. Leaving him for a couple of days to monitor.

2. Treating with a broad spectrum antibiotic - Maracyn-Two but I'm concerned about it's affect on Clown loaches.

Any thoughts? If treatment is recommended - hos does it affect cloans?

Thanks.

Can you first post test results in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph, if you do have to medicate is their anyway you can issolate the fish for treatment.

When in doubt, use at half dose.

It will extremlely affect the clowns. If you are dosing the entire tank, I suggest half doses for twice as long.

As for the spot, can you get us a pic of it? It is actually somewhat common for the Africans and especially more for the Rift Lake cichlids to get tumors. It is really unknown why, but they do. They usually look like a pink "bump" on the skin and can be located anywhere on the body. Sometimes they go away, while other times they will grow. Rarely does the fish die though, as a cause of this. If it is a tumor, no meds will treat it, you just have to let it run its course and see what happens. If it is a tumor, it is not contageous either. My best suggestion though, if you are going to treat it, is to treat just that fish in an QT. Don't dose the entire tank unless several fish have the same thing.

Please post a pic if you can

HTH....

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There is always a bigger fish...

Hey all.

Sorry about the delay. Here are the results as of today. I am also due for a 20% water change - been a bit (alot) busy.

pH 8.4
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 160-200ppm
GH 250-300

I buffer (homemade) the water to increase hardness and pH for the africans.

The yellow lab is still doing fine. He is eating well and his behaviour seems "as usual".

The red spot is raised now and open (like a big zit). Is it some kind of ulcer?

I haven't had too much disease during my fish hobby and therefore don't have a QT. However, I may pick one up.

So....what do you think?

If QT is required - what are the QT basics I need.

Thanks again all.

Wow, your nitrates are through the roof, first of all, try to get them down under 20. Do a couple water changes per week, until you get them down, that is extremely high.

Nextly, a pic would help extremely.

A QT only needs to have a tank, water, and IMO the best filter is a sponge filter. No need for lighting, as this will help to keep the stress of any ill fish down. The sponge filter will have a large biological filter in it. When not using it in the QT tank, you keep it in a regular fish tank, this way it is already seeded. Then when needed for a QT tank, you just move it. Clean it very well, and with a 10% bleach solution, before placing it back into one of the regular tanks. It will seed itself in about a week, and be ready for the next time to be a QT filter. You don't even have to keep water in your QT tank till you are ready to use it.



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There is always a bigger fish...

Thanks Acidrain.

I plan to do a H20 tomorrow. I will do 2x/week for a few weeks to see if it helps. Also - I've heard that a good gravel vacuum helps Nitrates.

Unfortunatley - I'm not a premium member and can post a pic. However, I'll look for a website to post on and post the link here.

Thanks.

Thanks - I'll keep you posted.

Tonight - the redness appears to be reducing and it appears to be healing. The lab still is acting "as usual".

However, I'm picking up a 10G QT, small pump and filter. I will start be adding some water from the existing tank to help speed the cycling. Any ideas on how fast I can get a QT up and running (cycling, etc.)? Do you keep the QT tank going all the time just for emergencies? I'm not sure I understand the full use. After I use it with a fish, do I clean it and refill/recycle until next time? Or do I just empty/clean for store.

I know my questions may soound weird but throughout the years I have never really had sick fish. They just pass naturally.

Thanks again.

QT Salt Water, up and running constantly for any emergencies.

QT Fresh Water, set up when needed. When setting up, I use a sponge filter that I keep running in another tank. I just pull it out and put it in the QT. After I no longer need the QT, I clean thouroughly the sponge filter, and put it back in the original tank. And break down the QT till needed again. You can also do this with a filter pad as well. It will have enough of a biological filter for use on a single sick fish in a QT tank. No need to keep a QT up and running all the time. Just don't put the dirty filter pad back into the original tank. Replace it with a new one.

HTH.....

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There is always a bigger fish...

I do exactly what Acid recommends on freshwater. I have spare 5 gallons and a 10 gallon. I have used Penguin Mini filters on both. These are difficult to sterilize. Therefore, I switched to cheap tri-flo corner filters. I put gravel from the main tank in the bottom to weigh it down (and for some limited good bacteria), and I put filter floss in it, with a couple drops of cycle. When I needed to pull out meds, I just pulled out the corner filter and added activated carbon. I also have a sponge filter running in the corner of every tank that can be used as needed. I also hook a battery operated air pump to these sponge filters during power outages . Limited bio-filtration is better than nothing.

Keep in mind that if you have a something like a small, 1 or 2 inch fish, you can probably make due with a 10 gallon and an airstone or two. Do a 20% water change every 3 days, but make sure overall tank temp isn't altered more than +/- 1F to prevent temp stress.

Also, I make sure the fish has things to make them feel secure since stress has everything to do with how their immune systems function. I typically use a bare bottom as it is easier to keep clean, but a single layer of gravel where fish may be stressed by light hitting the bottom. I use fake plants and for catfish, I added a fake cave. I once used a single layer of new gravel for new quarantined catfish because they just glided along the glass which was hard on them. They had something to sift through with the gravel. Dimness also makes them less stressful, as opposed to light which tends to make them more active.

One other thing that can make a schooling fish feel a little more secure is to place a couple of mirrors, even two in the same corner to give the appearance of others. This worked well with a qurantined guppy who was going nuts. He calmed when I put the mirror there. I did the same for a white cloud.

Other things that work well - a 25w heater (visitherm has an easy to turn submersible; cheaper ones are hard to turn and can cause an abrupt change in temp).

When I'm done with the tank, I soak in cool water and about a cup of bleach (overnight). I use several rinses with overdoses of dechlorinator, then let air dry until needed again. I add the fake plants and fake cave in there too.

Never risk cross contamination. If you can afford it, buy a separate gravel vac (tiny) to be used only for the quarantine tank. Have a net that is used only for sick an dead fish, then soak in a hyper-salinated solution (hot), or in a bleach solution.

Some bacteria and parasites are so virulent, only a drop of water from a contaminated tank, can spread something. So wash hands thoroughly between tanks.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 14-Nov-2004 23:42

Last edited by Cory_Di at 15-Nov-2004 14:34

Great tips on quarantine, Cory_Di.

Your hospital threads are always full of great advice for both new and seasoned aquarists. I just wanted to say thanks. One day you'll have to summarize your knowledge in some permanent articles for all of us.

Also good luck with the yellow lab, fins. I completely agree with what has already been posted, you're in great hands.

Yellow Lab update. Well he is doing fine and the pimple thing has shrunk and closed over. He continues to show no signs of stress. After reading about the tumor - I decided to watch and luckily it is working out.

I will continue to monitor. Thanks again for your help.

Regards,

Fins

My mother has an expression about some things that people would grow and keep in mind she is a young 72 . She says, "I grew it and I'm keeping it!" She doesn't want anyone cutting on her and I can't blame her. If it is cosmetic or if it is something like a tumor and slow growing, maybe they can live for a long time with it.

I have two fish whom I could have euthanized a long time ago. One is a severely egg-bound white cloud. There is nothing I can do for her, other than to let her live her life out, as long or as short as that's going to be. She eats (alot), and looks as content as any other fish in the tank, despite the grotesque look.

The second fish, also a white cloud, is a male with a strange growth on his "back". I recognize the spot as that which took many hits from the dominant male. It was bloody now and then from repeated strikes. I would add melafix to make sure it didn't infect, the then after many months, it started to grow something that looks like grey cauliflower. It could be cauliflower disease, which is caused from a virus and technically I should quarantine him or euthanize. But, my gut feeling is that it is not lymphocystis because it is grey, not white. If anything, I believe he has a cancerous growth.

He's been like this for a year and it continues to grow. No one else has come down with anything similar. I'll let him live until he passes, or until I see it is affecting his ability to live a quality life.

Sometimes, its best to just watch and observe. However, you have to really balance out whether you feel it is something contagious and consider the risk to the other inhabitants.