Bump on fish (Updated 12/31)

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Maggie Cummings

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I used to have water turtles and fed them gold fish on occasion.One fish made it, and has grown from a 5 gallon tank to a 10, 20, 30 and now 200 gallons. He's about 10 years old and about 9 inches. He lives with a 10 inch Pleco. All the sudden he has blood on the end of his fin, and a bump in his side. It is not open, just a bump. But it wasn't there yesterday. The blood on his fin has been there about 3 days. He's not as active as usual. But the water temp was a little high for him. I did a 3/4 water change Sunday...any opinions?
@Anthony P
 
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Maggie Cummings

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IMG_4172.JPG IMG_4164.JPG IMG_4167.JPG IMG_4174.JPG IMG_4167.JPG

Can you put up a picture of the bump, Maggie?


Oh


jeez, I took them and forgot to post...I'm sorry one picture showed up. This is ridiculous, I have posted 4 pictures, I am not allowed to do anything. I was able to send one conversation, but now at the top of my page it says I'm controlled. My alert button is crawling across the top of the screen and doesn't stop. I can't read my conversation now.
 
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Yvonne G

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Can you take a screen shot so Josh can see what's happening to you?
 
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Maggie Cummings

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Yvonne G

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Maggie: You're not being moderated. You are having computer trouble. And what you asked me about before, javascript? That's part of the web browser, not the Forum. It's too bad you don't know someone close by who is computer literate who could help you.

Your pictures showed up right away on the Forum. They were posted 3 times. You posted at 1:15 and I cleaned it up at 1:30, so it's not us or the Forum, it's your computer. Crummy lap top!
 

Delilah1623

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Do you have a water test kit? My first thought would be high nitrites... If so you can add salt, do water changes or add Amquel+ to the water. (If you add Amquel+ be very careful to not add too much as it can cause a pH crash especially in softer water which will give you a whole new set of problems)

If water tests are normal do you have a microscope and have you ever scraped before?
 

Delilah1623

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And its hard to see in the pictures, are the scales raised like a pinecone or is it just a lump under the scales?
 

Randi

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Could also be the fish equivalent of herpes which is quite serious. The red in the fin looks like septicemia.

It could also be a hookworm lump - a hookworm may be attached to the body. You can net the fish, bring it to the surface of the water and get a better look. If you are comfortable, you can pull it out if it's a hookworm or you can scrape the lump off. You can apply a thin layer of polysporin.
 

Delilah1623

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If was my fish this is what I would do...

-Check the water levels, most importantly ammonia, nitrite and nitrate

-Scrape and scope if you are comfortable with it.... to do this I normally put the fish in a smaller container and have a second person with gloves on hold the fish and pull it out of the water. Gently scrape off a bit of the slime coat from a few different areas. Most parasites tend to congregate close to the gills so make sure to get a sample from there. Then look at the sample under a microscope. If you see anything there are probably resources online or if you tell me what it looks like I can look, I have several very good fish fish books.

-Begin feeding an antibiotic food.

-Bump up the water temperature to mid to high 70's

-If water chemistry is ok (namely nitirites) and you are not able to scape and identify some type of parasite I would treat the tank. Without knowing exactly what the problem is it can be a guessing name. My go to first line of defense is Formalin when I am not able to find the actual cause. Do NOT use formalin with salt. Formalin will get rid of all sorts of bad things and I have never lost a fish from treatment but it is up to you what you are comfortable with.

-If the lump is irregular and only on one side it maybe be a tumor and in that case there isn't much you can do.
 

Delilah1623

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One last thought.. it maybe be an ulcer but it's so hard to tell in the pictures what is going on. You could pull the fish and swab the spot with a diluted betadine solution... try to hold her out for a few seconds to let it get at the area and then return her to the tank. I would try this along with raising the water temperature and antibiotic food for a couple days. If that doesn't help then I would treat the tank with something.

If you do do this make sure to have her held with the head angled up so the betadine doesn't run into her gills.
 
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Maggie Cummings

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your goldfish could be suffering from septicemia , hope that narrow down your search

It is indeed septicemia. I keep a fairly clean tank so this is really bothering me. It's a 250 gallon tank with a 9 or so inch gold fish and an 11 inch pleco. So I put her in a hospital tank and treated her with terramycin. I have to do that for 3 to 5 days. I sure wish I had a 10 gallon, I'm using a 3 gallon. Maybe tomorrow I use a bucket...little bigger...
 

leigti

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It is indeed septicemia. I keep a fairly clean tank so this is really bothering me. It's a 250 gallon tank with a 9 or so inch gold fish and an 11 inch pleco. So I put her in a hospital tank and treated her with terramycin. I have to do that for 3 to 5 days. I sure wish I had a 10 gallon, I'm using a 3 gallon. Maybe tomorrow I use a bucket...little bigger...
Could you put her in a Rubbermaid bin for a while? it would definitely be bigger.
 

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Maggie's computer is on the fritz, so she can't respond here, but she wanted me to let leopard777 know that she did research online on septicemia in fish, and she thinks that's what's wrong with her fish. She has done the recommended treatment but the fish doesn't seem to be getting any better, and now the blood shows in the tail and between the cloaca and the tail (?) if I'm describing and understanding what she was trying to tell me. She asked me to thank you for your help, so "thank you!"
 

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I have a lot of fish tanks. My house looks like Sea World. I raise large predatory fishes called FLOWERHORNS. For a while I used to offer them live goldfish as a treat and I had a separate gold fish tank set up to quarantine them. Every so often I would see this in a feeder goldfish. I've also seen it in feeder guppies. It is a parasitic worm that is just under the skin. I wont go into detail about how I've come to know that. But I hope it helps. Both goldfish and especially PLECOs are great manufacturers of waste! These things thrive in pollution. I don't know if it is cure- able or not. But in my opinion you need to treat with a parasitic agent. And do not let that fish back into the community until he looks well.
 

Yvonne G

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Thank you, zeropilot. I'll let Maggie know.
 
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