My knight goby, who I first thought might have developed ich (see http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... php?t=4456 ), appears to have what my fish books describe as lymphocystitis bilaterally on each pectoral fin.
So, my books say no treatment...do I need to worry, cull the fish, or just let him be...
Thanks,
Eric
PS - The water parameters are unchanged from the prior posting. Tankmates are one figure 8 and one dalmation molly. Tank is 29 gallons.
Lymphocystitis help?
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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1.006 is fine for knight gobies.
Lymphocystis is not rare in benthic fish. It's theoretically caused by a virus, but it is generally believed that the virus only becomes a problem if something else goes wrong.
In the North Sea, it is very common on flounders and other flatfish, and has been (though not universally) attributed to heavy metal pollution. So there may be an environmental issue. I've seen it on a geriatric Awaous goby. Possibly the problem is a dirty substrate, or some contaminant on the substrate that filtration/water changes don't remove, or the bacteria that grow on the substrate.
Lymphocystis is (normally) not dangerous to the fish (it's the equivalent of warts on humans) and can, eventually, go away by itself. Some books recommend slicing off infected tissue. The fins should grow back. I can't be bothered to do that and stress my fish, for what is fundamentally an unsightly rather than catchy or debilitating disease.
Cheers,
Neale
Lymphocystis is not rare in benthic fish. It's theoretically caused by a virus, but it is generally believed that the virus only becomes a problem if something else goes wrong.
In the North Sea, it is very common on flounders and other flatfish, and has been (though not universally) attributed to heavy metal pollution. So there may be an environmental issue. I've seen it on a geriatric Awaous goby. Possibly the problem is a dirty substrate, or some contaminant on the substrate that filtration/water changes don't remove, or the bacteria that grow on the substrate.
Lymphocystis is (normally) not dangerous to the fish (it's the equivalent of warts on humans) and can, eventually, go away by itself. Some books recommend slicing off infected tissue. The fins should grow back. I can't be bothered to do that and stress my fish, for what is fundamentally an unsightly rather than catchy or debilitating disease.
Cheers,
Neale
Neale - thanks for the information. I'll just keep an eye on things at this point. The gravel is aragonite, and I vacuum it regularly (i.e. - weekly with water changes). However, we are in a drought in my part of the US, and I wonder if we could be getting something odd in our water because any farm run off wouldn't be as diluted (our water is from the Missouri river). Everyone else in the tank looks fine, though, but I'll be sure and do an extra heavy vacuum job tonight when I change water.
Eric
Eric
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Rusty
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Hmm....just a thought but if your not sure if its the water maybe get some bottled or something, just for now.?
Last edited by Rusty on Sun Aug 06, 2006 8:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Old fishermen never die, they just smell that way.
Rusty
Rusty
I decided to net the little bugger and get a really close up view of what's on his fins...and it looked almost like a white, small worm on each fin. So, I grabbed a flash light, some fine tweezers, and pulled them off. He's now swimming fine, but hiding whenever he sees me.
Hopefully that will take care of things. I'd really prefer not to dose the tank.
Eric
Hopefully that will take care of things. I'd really prefer not to dose the tank.
Eric