Tetra with lump on head

[Paul Lane]

My Tetra has developed a lump on its head. I have never seen anything like this before and I am not sure how to treat it. Tetra is about 4 years old and has always been in good health. 120l tank shared with a couple of adult and a dozen juvenile Guppies. Juveniles were born a couple of months ago. There are also a couple of Plecos. I carry out water changes on a regular basis and always add a small dose of Melafix at those times. I have checked all water parameters and they are good. This issue developed about a month ago, at least the first time I noticed it and doesn't appear to have gotten any larger since. So far I tried treating with "King British disease clear" for a couple of weeks, then made a large water change. Started a treatment with "King British fin rot and fungus control" last week, but so far no change. The Tetra itself appears to be fine, other than this. Eating well and swimming ok. I have put it into a small internal floating tank just in case the fish dies and the others start feeding on it, I don't have a quarantine tank setup.
All of the other fish in the tank appear to be fine, feeding and swimming well.
Can anyone help me identify this disease and recommend a possible treatment?
Many thanks in advance.

 

[Essjay]

Can we ask a few more questions, please
We know the tank is 120 litres/32 gallons

What are the actual levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in number?
What is the hardness (GH) of your water - your water provider's website may have this
How often do you do water changes?
How big are your water changes?
Have you added anything to the tank in the last couple of months?

I carry out water changes on a regular basis and always add a small dose of Melafix at those times.

Why do you add melafix when you do a water change? The less we add to a tank the better. All that's needed is a dechlorinator/water conditioner.

The more information you can give, the more likely we'll be able to help.

 

[Retired Viking]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I agree with @essjay the less chemicals we add the better for the fish. The only chemical I add besides de-chlorinator is flourish for my plants and I only do that at 1/2 dosage.

 

[Paul Lane]

Can we ask a few more questions, please
We know the tank is 120 litres/32 gallons

What are the actual levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in number?
What is the hardness (GH) of your water - your water provider's website may have this
How often do you do water changes?
How big are your water changes?
Have you added anything to the tank in the last couple of months?

Why do you add melafix when you do a water change? The less we add to a tank the better. All that's needed is a dechlorinator/water conditioner.

The more information you can give, the more likely we'll be able to help.

Hi Essjay, thanks for the response, first time posting here, so forgive the lack of pertinent information.
Melafix: I was given the advice in an Aquarium shop a couple of years ago to add a single cap full to a 10% water change.
Tank: is 120 litres and I use an Eheim 4 250T external filter. I feed sparingly with a variety of food types, although I stopped using live food after a friends tank population was devastated by bacteria from live food.
Water changes: Usually about 10% per week, plus 20% once a month. I usually add 10ml of Melafix each time (I will stop that on advice here). I also add 10ml of Easy Balance or Stress Zyme on alternate changes.
GH: I use Reverse Osmosis water bought locally. I do not have a GH test kit, but was advised that RO is 0 for Hardness.
PH: 7.4 to 7.6 (Checked on both high and low PH register)
Amonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Temperature: 80% (I raised the temperature from 76 to 80 by 1 degree a week over the last 4 weeks.
Other: I added a couple of tablespoons of Aquarium salt last week.
I was advised that temp and salt would aide the disease treatment.
Thanks for response, hope you can help identify the issue with the Tetra.
Regards
Paul

 

[seangee]

Do you only have the 1 tetra? I don't know what the problem is but would suggest a 75% water change every day for a week and watch and wait. If it is from trauma it may well improve over a couple of weeks. If its a tumour it won't - but medication won't help either. As long as its not affecting swimming or feeding the best you can do is provide plenty of clean fresh water.

Tetras really do need to be in groups of 6 or more, more is better.

I use RO water in my tanks. There is no need to add anything else to it - not even de-chlorinator / conditioner. A word of caution though, RO water is perfect for soft water fish like the tetra and plecos but not really good for hard water fish like guppies. These would be better off in your surrey tap water.

Finally I suggest a 50-75% water change every week. Despite the claims on the easy balance bottle there is no miracle cure that can overcome the fact that fish in a tank live in their own muck.