Domino damsel with cauliflower disease?

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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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The Fisherman
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Domino damsel with cauliflower disease?

Post by The Fisherman »

I got my first fish in my 55 gallon SW tank (FOWLR) , a domino damsel. he is doing great, and still continues to do good, except, after about a day after i got him, a small white dot apeared on his body, and it has been growing ever since into what is now a bump. I added melafix, because i thought it was a fungi , but it still continues to get bigger. It actually looks kinda "lumpy". the flesh around the bump is slightly raised and lighter colored then the rest.

He behaves normally, eating like theres no tomorrow, isnt skitish, no flicking or scratching, so i think it might be cauliflower disease.

Tank parameters are as follows: PH: 8.0( i think), ammonia:0, nitrIte:0, nitrAte: 20 ppm, temperature: 78 F. It has 60 lbs of live sand, 6 lbs of LR, and 20 lbs of base rock. Via-aqua 300 watt titanium heater, maxi-jet 1200 power head, fluval 304 canister filter, and a seaclone 100 PS( removed right now because of the melafix)

here is a full tank shot, upclose of the reef structure( fake of course), and pics of the damsel and his bump. sorry about the low-res, its as high as my camera will go. ( im using the memory stick on a digital video camera)The bump is the middle "spot" on the photos.
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can you tell me what it is and what i should do?

thanks!

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Post by The Fisherman »

ummm, help? :27:
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Post by RTR »

All you wanted to know, unfortunately including the part you did want to know.

http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/clerk/Kurkjian/

I have assisted on the surgery on a captive gar to remove a fin lesion (much easier than lesions on the body), never on the body.
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Post by The Fisherman »

ugh, not good...... :29:

In the book i have( the marine aquarium problem solver, by nick dakin, published by tetrapress), it sais that the fish will eventually fight the virus off, given good water conditions and low stress. I have all of those in my tank right now. Is this true?


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Post by The Fisherman »

He is really not doing good, it appears there are 2 more lesions on his anal fin( when i got him i assumed it was the fin tip....) and 2 more lesions starting to grow right next to the big "wart". In addition he is breathing VERY rapidly. and he hides in his cave all the time. ( although this could be due to me scaring the crap out of him by turning on the skimmer again, and swarms of micro bubbles from the melafix.)

Is there any hope for him? or am i going to have to euthanize.... I just like the little guy so much... :cry:


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Post by RTR »

Most fish tolerate lymphocystis very well, unless the growth(s) interfere with swimming, vision, or eating. We did the surgical excision only because Vet Pathology wanted the specimen for the collection. The downside is that it is infectious.

I doubt the current distress is related to the disease.
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Post by The Fisherman »

Hmmmm, does that mean eventually it will go away and i will be able to get more fish without risk of infection? The only thing i could think of is maybe he has a lesion growing inside his gill.


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Post by RTR »

I have reservations about it ever going away totally. I think that fish would remain a singleton for me.
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Post by The Fisherman »

Hmmmm, thats not good. Hes the only fish in my 55 gal. tank, wich i was planning to be FOWLR. dang... I really dont know what i should do.
I know damsels are pretty hardy fish, maybe i could set up a 10 gal. tank for him, but i dont think i could afford all the salt....

Im sure the LFS wouldnt take him back, because of the infectious disease...

If the fish wasnt in the tank, then no other fish introduced into the tank could contract the disease?

thank for all the help.


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Post by RTR »

I do not know the lifespan of that virus without the host, but keeping the tank invert-only for some fairly short QT period should clear any virus pretty quickly with no vertebtates present.
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Post by The Fisherman »

I got back from my saturady graphic design classes, and i couldnt find the damsel anywhere in the tank. I dislodged all the rockwork, and found him dead at the bottom....
A lesion must have formed inside his gill, that must have been causing the rapid breathing, and killed him. He had stopped eating and was hiding all the time too.
I feel so bad, i liked the little guy a lot...
At least his spirit will live on in the banner at the bottom of my posts.


Im going to my LFS today to pick up some hermits, just to keep the bio load going. Ill wait a week or 2 to put another fish in.( think thats enough to kill the virus?)

Dang. Did i just get really unlucky?


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Post by The Fisherman »

I got 6 hermits today, although i almost got a choclate chip star( the only one they had was melting) and a peppermint shrimp, but i dont think im good enough at SW yet to take care of a 9$ shrimp.

Man, hermits arent as intresting to watch as i thought theyd be.( although it could be because of the migraine i have right now, arghhh!!! been playing splintercell for too many hours...


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Post by YBeNormal »

Man, hermits arent as intresting to watch as i thought theyd be.
I dunno about that. Then again, maybe I'm just easily amused. My daughter received three large hermits on her birthday last September from one of her friends. The friend obviously didn't realize that there is a distinct difference between land hermits found in PetSmart (my daughter had a dozen of them at the time) and hermits found in the water at the beach. In the sump they went and I became the caretaker. I actually find them to be pretty interesting. Nothing to write home about, but I do spend quite a bit of time feeding and watching them.
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Post by The Fisherman »

Yeah, your right, they are pretty fun to watch. My headaches gone now, I think that must have been why.

What should i feed them? or do i just let them scavenge?


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