Lump has appeared on discus gill plate

[isaac3d]

Using the Questionaire provided:

Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
Answer:
A lump (approx 6mm diameter) has appeared on one of my discus (Stendker: Checkerboard; approx 12 to 15 cm): see attached photos.
The lump appeared suddenly, approx 24 to 48 hours.


2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).

Answer:
The fish started hiding a day ago and would not eat. Today (water change day, as it happens), it is still hiding most of the time and has developed a warty looking lump on left gill plate.


3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
Answer:
No treatments yet as I don't know what the problem is.


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
Answer:
340 litres running for more than 6 months. 10 Stendker discus, Cardinal tetras, Rummy nose tetras, 6 Sterbai corydoras, 2 leopard frog plecos (approx: 8cm), 2 L519 plecos approx 8cm, 2 galaxy plecos (blue and green) approx 6cm, just recently added the blue.


5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
Answer:
50% weekly


6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
Answer:
Over 6 months. Sand substrate approx 5cm deep


7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
Answer:
No. I use tapwater treated with Seachem Prime water conditioner


8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use?
Answer:
Seachem Prime water conditioner (following manufacturers instructions for amounts), diluted and added to each bucket of water


9. Parameters and water source;

Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.


- temp 29.3 celsius

- ph 7.6

- ammonia reading: undetectable

- nitrite reading approx 0.01 to 0.02 ppm

- nitrate reading approx 5 to 10 ppm (tapwater is already 5 ppm)

What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.

- well water ____ No

- municipal water ____ Yes

- RO water ____ No


10. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
Answer:
Juvenile blue galaxy plec added about 3 weeks ago from a trusted source from which I have previously bought Cardinal tetras and Sterbai Corys


11. Please tell us what you feed your fish and how often. This can be critical information for solving the problem so be as specific as you can.
Answer:
Twice daily: a mixture of dried foods (flake/pellets) and thawed frozen foods. The frozen food is a proprietary mix. Occasionally given frozen bloodworms/daphnia/blackworms/beefheart. Basically, I give them a broad spectrum of foods and something for all the species.




12. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to them.
Answer:
See attached images:
Lump1.jpg
Lump2.jpg
Lump3.jpg

Could this be an infected wound? Or is it something more serious? Any advice on the course of action would be welcome.

[jeep]

It's hard to say exactly what it is. Hopefully it's a scrape or minor wound of some sort. I would begin by giving your tank a really good cleaning then increasing your water changes to every day or other day at least until this gets better. I would also add 2 TBS salt per 10g. I'm pretty sure your plants can handle this amount of salt for a week or two.

Keep us updated and we can maybe adjust the treatment if needed...

[bluelagoon]

When you say "warty looking lump". It reminds me of one disease. Lymphocystis disease. If so that is viral infection and your fish will have it for life. Only one fish may exhibit the warts but all are infected. Lets hope that is not what is and hopefully fresh water might work. Also seems like a lot of water volume from out of the tap. Most folks cannot do large 50% from the tap because most of treated water comes in under pressure packing in more CO2.

[brewmaster15]

That lump does look alot like lymphcystis(virus) . If you have a hospital tank I would move this fish there.

Theres also a chance its a fungal infection. It might be worth trying nystatin or fluconazole.

Screenshot_20231115-102619_Chrome.jpg

Screenshot_20231115-103946_Chrome.jpg

If the treatment works its piece of mind that the fish doesnt have Lymphocystis... if it doesnt work though it could be either Lymphocystis or fungal. ...or something else.
Last note..
If the fish were mine.. I would put in hospital tank asap.
Al

[isaac3d]

Thanks for the replies.
@ bluelagoon; I have not previously noticed a pH swing on doing a water change, but will double check anyway.

@ brewmaster15 Unfortunately Nystatin is not available without medical prescription here in the UK. Fluconazole does appear to be available but is sold for treating algae in marine tanks.
If I put a single discus in to a small hospital tank, won't that stress it even more?

In the meantime, I will start with salt.

[isaac3d]

So, to keep you updated:
The lump on the discus is bigger and more whitish with red/pink around it. So it looks more like an infected wound than a cancerous lump.
I have removed the discus to a 30L hospital tank, currently bare bottomed but I will add some plastic plants just to give it somewhere to hide. I used the water from the tank it came from. It has a trickle filter. I'll do daily water changes of about 10%.
I have treated with aquarium salts to a concentration of nearly 0.9% salt. I have also added an anti whitespot/ anti fungal treatment (Malachite Green and Formaldehyde).

I will offer it a bit of food tomorrow and remove it if not eaten.
Hopefully, it will recover.

[brewmaster15]

If thats an infected wound /sore. Formalin and malachite green are not a good choice. Salt bath is fine.

I know you have problems with getting antibiotics.. but maybe sites that cater to pigeons may have something you can use..

https://www.pharmapigeons.com/antibi...on-products-uk

Looks promising.

Al

[bluelagoon]

The season I said that it was viral. Is that in the pic which wasn't that great, it looked like cauliflower in appearance. And how you described it. "warty looking lump". If you cannot get antibiotics and can use the MG & F, I would. It should be ok for bacterial skin infections too. If you water has a lot of micro bubbles after a large WC; this also means that you need to age your water.