Unknown Growth

HI, I'm sure this is posted to the wrong board, but as it isn't a real emergency, ill leave it here.

My dad sent me some images of his aquarium (set up 6 years ago, when I left) and I noticed that on one of the barbs there was an odd growth on its jaw. According to my dad, it doesn't seem to affect it and feeds without difficulty, but it has grown in the past two months. I was just wondering if anyone can tell if its a tumour-style growth or a fungus growth and if its preventable if theres risk to the fish.

cheers.

Gosh - well that looks to me like Lymphocystis, although I'm no expert. From what I've read it is the cysts resemble a raspberry or cauliflower and fish will often continue feeding as normal unless it progresses further into a secondary disease. I would research a bit more into that, though. If it is that, then it can be treated with meds. Tell your dad that Waterlife do one called MYXAZIN which treats this but there are plenty others at your LFS if that's not available.

Regards, Athena

It certainly looks like lymphocystis but i doubt any commercially available meds will fix this infection, myxazin is a relatively mild med and i don't think it will cure the disease however it does have a range of subtle benefits and is mild enough to be worth using. One of two things are likely to happen, the growth will continue to get larger until it prevents the fish from feeding properly in which case the only treatment would be to debulk the growth. The other is that if the lesion is lucky enough not to pick up any secondary infections then it will eventually start to regress and the wound should heal. It would be worth checking water parameters and housing requirements to make sure the fish is in suitable conditions, a happy fish with a good diet will go a long way to help heal itself.

edit, not sure it will help but your dads fish isn't a barb, its a black widow tetra. good luck.