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Please PLEASE can anyone help?

carlynicolew

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The tropical fish shop I’ve been to twice seem clueless and if I don’t act fast I’m worried I’m going to lose this fish.

Any idea what the white lumps are?

They fall off and grow back and appear to be getting bigger.

Fish is eating but behaviour is odd.

Hanging around near filter in the corner.

I’ve seen in swimming upside down too.

I’ve tried methylene blue and last night I added pimafix and melafix to the water as recommended by the shop.

I’ve had the tank and fish roughly 8 years.
 

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How long has it been going on? Is it with other fish? Could it be lymphocystis? I don't know too much about it but I don't think it's treatable and if I'm not mistaken it just runs its course and goes away on its own. Personally I don't use meds unless I know for sure what I'm treating as it could make a problem worse. I would increase the frequency on water changes and also the aeration
 
Rather than using remedies, which don't help, going with 40% water changes at least once weekly, for.... ever. Twice weekly would be better.

It appears viral - hence the no treatment. I think @CaptainBarnicles has identified it, and if so, it can only be controlled, not cured, sometimes. The fact the fish has been swimming upside down isn't a good sign, but the fact the growths have fallen away at times is a good one.

How large and how crowded is the tank, and what has been the water change routine?

It's almost certain someone will check in asking about water test results. Poor water quality will increase the stress the virus thrives in, but it's a disease, and you can read the water, or change it for the better. I'd do a water change after reading this, and see what an aggressive water quality regime will do. Testing will just tell you to do what you should already have done.

This irodovirus can kill your fish, I'm sorry to say, but it can also be controlled. Forget meds and remedies (viral) unless one of the points of growth becomes infected.
 
What sort of fish is it?
Are there any other fish in the tank with it?

It is not lymphocystis.
It is not white spot.

It looks like a bacterial infection or hole in the head disease. However, I'm going with bacterial due to the red areas around the white gunk that is coming out.

What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the water?
What sort of filter is on the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?

How long has the fish had the problem?
 
Thanks for all the replies.

The water is fine as has been tested.

There’s another two fish in the tank. They have all been in that tank together for years and years. I’ve never had a problem with any of them before.

The growths have fallen off twice now. It’s very very strange.
 
It would help us better identify the issue if you could answer the questions please? We're not here to judge you, you wanted help but we can't offer it if you're not going to give us the information. Specifically, the duration of the illness and the results of your tests 👍🏻
 
It would help us better identify the issue if you could answer the questions please? We're not here to judge you, you wanted help but we can't offer it if you're not going to give us the information. Specifically, the duration of the illness and the results of your tests 👍🏻
The water was tested at the fish shop and all levels were fine.

The white spots/growths started to appear last Friday. Fell off Saturday morning and left a red sore like mark but have since grown back and again come off. I’ll attach a photo of how it looked on Saturday morning. Prior to this happening, I changed the water about two weeks before hand.
 

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Either bacterial or hole in the head disease.

Salt or metronidazole. I would do salt first and see how it goes. If no improvement after a week, try Metronidazole.

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Before you treat the fish, do the following.
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 75-80% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water change 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 when using salt or medications to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

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To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these before measuring the height of the water level so you get a more accurate water volume.

You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating with chemicals or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working. You do not need to remove the carbon if you use salt.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.
 

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