Tumor or Disease & Curability

[SteveCGG]

Anyone know what this is? It started as a small bump and has progressively gotten worse, it is starting to push an eye out...bacterial & fungal meds don't work...help!

[imagirlgeek]

Ugh...Steve, that sucks.

It looks like Lymphocystis to me. I could be totally wrong, but I'd bet on it. It also makes sense that anti-bacterial and anti-fungal meds don't work, since Lymphocystis is a virus. It IS contagious, but is only spread when a fish gets damaged during a fight or something. It's kind of like herpes for fish. It really only shows up when the fish is stressed. They could be a carrier and never display it.

What I would do is isolate him if you can. This will keep his stress levels down. Then if you have some liquid vitamins, soak his food in it, and add it to the water. If you don't have liquid vitamins, you can use Vitamin C for people. But I prefer the multi-vitamin sold for fish.

I have an African Scat who gets those nodules on his body after he's been picked on. I just do a water change and treat the tank with vitamins. It clears up after a while.

[SteveCGG]

Thanks Traci....he is in a quarantine tank all by himself already, but it was still getting worse during the week he has been in there...will the vitamin C do anything to the assassin snails or plants in the tank?

[imagirlgeek]

Shouldn't have any affect on the plants or snails. The only thing I'd suggest is to watch pH since I don't know what your Vitamin C is buffered with. Just add it slowly to avoid any crazy swings.