Clear bubble under German Blue Ram gills

Livy_ann

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Can anyone tell me what the thing is under my German blue rams head?
One side of his gill is more extended.

It has come and gone over the last month. Once day it appears sometimes light brown, red or clear(sometimes small and sometimes big)
Than the next day its just gone but has reappeared multiple times.
He is eating and acting very normal, so puzzled.

*I have asked numerous groups before and got no answer.

I have been told possibly gas bubble disease
But have heard that's caused by high lighting an algae bloom. This tank currently has no algae in very high flow with two sponge holders and a power filter.
 

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It looks like a cyst. The red part at the bottom of it is blood. It probably grows, appears, then gets popped and disappears for a bit before growing back.
There's no cure for cysts apart from surgical removal and that usually kills the fish.

Does the fish eat normally?

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Gas bubble disease is caused by very fine air bubbles in the aquarium. The fish can breath them in and the bubbles can appear anywhere on their body. The most common cause of gas bubble disease is using wooden airstones in aquariums, or have a power filter hose with a tiny leak so it sucks in tiny bubbles that get pumped into the water. Gas bubble disease is a very uncommon thing in aquariums.
 
Colin is right that the coming and going with this is a classic abscess pattern.

As for the cause, the one time I have ever seen something like this was a gourami with a similar come-and-go swelling further down mostly affecting the lower jaw; it had some kind of worm embedded that eventually showed itself a bit one day and I was able to pull it out. There are some worms that have complex life cycles where in phase is encysting in a fish, and of course it doesn’t spread unless the correct next species is present, so other fish are unaffected. There are of course other things that can cause abscesses like embedded foreign objects and just an injury that results in infection, but that gourami is the only instance where I saw it persist for a long time without seeming to otherwise harm the fish.
 
As long as he's eating well and not having trouble swimming, you can just leave it be. However, if he stops eating or has trouble eating, or has trouble swimming, or seems irritated by it, then euthanise him.
 

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