White Blister Appeared On Harlequin's Lip

Aquapotts · Oct 12, 2009

Hi, I have a 60 litre biorb tank stocked with 4 guppies and 3 harlequin rasbora.

Last night I noticed one of the harlequins has a small blister-like spot on his lower lip (at the front, in the centre). Is this the first sign of an illness, or is it possible he has simply bumped too hard into something and caused this himself.

Has anybody come across this type of blister/ulcer thing before?

Should I be considering separating it from the other fish?

Thanks

P.S. I have updated this to include a picture - any further help or advice would be greatly appreciated...

WILDER · Oct 12, 2009

What are your water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

It can be bacterial, injury, parasite.
Does the bubble blister move if not issolate and treat as bacterial.

Aquapotts · Oct 12, 2009

Thanks for your reply.

Ammonia is 0, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate about 20 (i find it difficult to match to the API colour chart). I've done a water change this morning and have a hospital tank ready just in case.

The blister does not move, but the fish doesn't seem too bothered by it.

I've never had to separate any of my fish before, any tips - will the fish be okay in a small tank on his own (I think its about 13 litres). How do I treat for bacteria? Thanks again for your help...

WILDER · Oct 12, 2009

You will need to match ph and temp.
Do you have a filter and heater for the issolation tank.
The heater in the main tank does it have a heater guard.
What substrate do you have in the tank.

Anti internal bacterial med by interpet.
or myxazin by waterlife.

Aquapotts · Oct 12, 2009

I have the same type of heaters for both tanks - a Theo Hydor (picture attached - if I've done it right) not sure if it's guarded - it's cased well enough to be submerged and not hot to touch.
The hospital tank was set up this morning taking water from the main tank - so it is not technically cycled, but I will be doing regular water changes - do you this will be ok.
I have ceramic media that was supplied with the biorb in the main tank, it's big and chunky and quite rough, but I understand that it houses the biological filtration. I have a handful of large pebbles (also supplied by biorb) that cover some areas. Do you think it is possible he has injured himself trying to get to food below the ceramic media?
I will have to go out and get some internal med ASAP

WILDER · Oct 12, 2009

If the pebbles are large and no sharp areas I doubt it the pebbles that caused it.

When you preform a water change just add the correct amount of med back to water removed.

Let me know how he gets on.
Good Luck.

Aquapotts · Oct 13, 2009

Just updating for anyone else who may be wanting to learn from this.

I went out to buy some medication and the lady at the pet shop felt that it would be best to treat the whole tank as it was likely that other fish may also be infected. And, sure enough, when I got home I had noticed a second Harlequin has a very small "blister" appearing. So I can now clearly class this as a bacteria problem and not due to an injury. I am now treating the whole tank, so will update on my progress...

Thanks again to Wilder for your advice - I may have decided to do nothing to see how things went, but because of you I may have taken action just in time, we'll see how it goes...

WILDER · Oct 13, 2009

Good Luck.
Let us know how they get on.
Thanks for the update.

Ed Green · Oct 15, 2009

Hello

My Harlequin's have the exact same issue. I treated them with what I could (because I have inverts in the tank the stronger meds are not possible) and they went away but now its back. The fish dont see to care at all but I want it fixed -

Did you fix it and if so what with?

Thanks a lot!

Ed

JustKia · Oct 15, 2009

I think you'll probably find it's mouth fungus (columnaris).
That looks exactly like the harlequins I got - sadly mine all died while still in quarentine.

MrPurplePickle · Oct 15, 2009

Very interesting... I have 10 Harlequins in my tank. Funnily enough I have a few that look exactly the same.
They have been like this for well over a month, and it hasn't gotten any worse.

They all feed well, look well, behave normally.
I don't believe it is an illness

I did read somewhere, (will try and find where I saw this) that it is basically an injury from them establishing heirachy amongst themselves.

Ed Green · Oct 16, 2009

MrPurplePickle said:
Very interesting... I have 10 Harlequins in my tank. Funnily enough I have a few that look exactly the same.
They have been like this for well over a month, and it hasn't gotten any worse.

They all feed well, look well, behave normally.
I don't believe it is an illness

I did read somewhere, (will try and find where I saw this) that it is basically an injury from them establishing heirachy amongst themselves.

Hi there,

Thanks for posting. I came to the conclusion that mine are not ill - they have now had this white spot on their lips for about 3 months and show no other symptoms - they all seem very happy.

I have apple snails and cherry shrimp in their tank and so could not use any real meds - I did however use a general purpose med that I think is basically tea tree oil. This did clear up the white marks temporarily, or at least they went down some what but returned after I stopped dosing.

if it is an injury from establishing hierarchy then how do they do it? I suppose tea tree oil would naturally heal a self inflicted wound too.

WILDER · Oct 16, 2009

Columnaris spots are a greyish white with a red centre of a circling of red around the edges. Or even pink.
There quite hard to get rid of with uk over the counter meds.

Melafix is only good on cuts and wounds. For spots you need an internal bacteria med.

MrPurplePickle · Oct 16, 2009

Ed Green said:
Hi there,

Thanks for posting. I came to the conclusion that mine are not ill - they have now had this white spot on their lips for about 3 months and show no other symptoms - they all seem very happy.

I have apple snails and cherry shrimp in their tank and so could not use any real meds - I did however use a general purpose med that I think is basically tea tree oil. This did clear up the white marks temporarily, or at least they went down some what but returned after I stopped dosing.

if it is an injury from establishing hierarchy then how do they do it? I suppose tea tree oil would naturally heal a self inflicted wound too.

I'm not sure, found where I read that, it was only one persons suppostion, so you can take it or leave it.
What I do know, this appears to be not an unusual occurance and I'm not worried in the slightest with mine. :good:

Aquapotts · Nov 1, 2009

Well, my Harlequin still has this "blister". I've tried treating it with a general tea-tree based med, and like some others that have posted here, it almost totally went away but came back. One of the other Harlequins sometimes has the same type of thing, but the guppies and other fish don't seem affected.

Because they all seem fine and it hasn't got any worse, I suspect that MrPurplePickle and Ed are probably right and that it is just a wound and is typical in this type of fish.

Not too worried about it now, but will always keep a keen eye on any changes and let you all know...

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