Good evening! My son noticed an odd protrusion on his Phantom Tetra this evening. This is a 20 gallon tank with currently 7 phantom tetras, 1 bristlenose pleco and a danio. We lost a danio earlier this week - it had red marks on it, so we're not sure if this is related or something else as it doesn't look at all the same. The danio had some red marks and was acting oddly (staying near the top of the tank, gasping) and was gone the next morning. This tank has been established for over a year with no issues. Any ideas/suggestions?
Phantom Tetra Bump
- Thread starter mariebmk
- Start date
To me this looks like lympho, a type of viral infection. It has no cure but it usually isn't fatal unless a fish is heavily affected or it develops in vital organs.
Need better pictures but it's not lymphocystis. That makes white cauliflower like growths on the edges of the fins.
It could be a physical wound or a sore that is developing.
Re: the danio. When fish are fine one day and gasping at the surface the next day and die shortly after that, they usually have internal problems (organ failure or an internal infection). There's no cure for that.
Try to get some more pictures of the black phantom tetra from different angles. It might offer more info. If the glass is dirty, clean that before taking pictures so nothing appears on the fish from the glass.
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If a fish dies in the aquarium or a fish is sick from an unknown cause, do the following.
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.
Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.
Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.
It could be a physical wound or a sore that is developing.
Re: the danio. When fish are fine one day and gasping at the surface the next day and die shortly after that, they usually have internal problems (organ failure or an internal infection). There's no cure for that.
Try to get some more pictures of the black phantom tetra from different angles. It might offer more info. If the glass is dirty, clean that before taking pictures so nothing appears on the fish from the glass.
--------------------
If a fish dies in the aquarium or a fish is sick from an unknown cause, do the following.
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.
Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.
Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.
Thanks for the input! I tested the water and Ammonia was 0, Nitrite was 0, Nitrate was 10. I don't have an accurate pH - but it is always high due to the water in our area. We talked to a local aquarium store about it and they wern't concerned as long as there wern't drastic changes, which there haven't been. Here are a few more images I was able to capture, It is acting 100% normal at least.
Unsure but most likely the start of a sore or growth. Monitor and see how it goes over the next few weeks. If it gets worse, post new pictures asap. If it gets worse slowly then its a tumour or growth of some sort. There's no cure for tumours or growths.
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