I posted this identical plea in cichlid-forum, but am receiving no help there, hoping someone here can help me before I lose fish.


I picked up 5 green texas cichlids about a month ago from PetSmart. One of them had a small growth on the base of the dorsal fin, which I removed with tweezers, and all looked fine. I have them quarantined in a 29gal aquarium waiting to be moved into an 80 gal. They are still small, between 2" and 3". Much to my surprise, last week the smallest proved to be a fertile female and mated with the largest, and succeded in hatcing eggs.
Now I find the mother has these cluster growths on the base of her pectoral fin, and the father has one on the base of his dorsal. The other 3 in the tank seem fine. They are all acting healthy, but it looks very bad.
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 8
very hard water, comes from a limestone well.

Here are two pictures and a short video showing the growths. Can someone please tell me what to do !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't want to lose what is proving to be a new breeding pair for me.

Mom


Dad


http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc75/StillaZilla/?action=view&current=Spot3.f lv

Please help me

this link didn't seem to work on first post.

http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc75/StillaZilla/?action=view&current=Spot3.flv

Looks like a tumor of some sort, the cause is unknown and not much you can do besides keep the water clean. It should shrink back down on it's own....I am no pro at disease ID but that is what it looks like to me.

This link may help you as well...I think this site has a great disease descriptions...

CLICK HERE

Clean water is a very good idea. It is tough to tell what may be causing the growths though.

I have raised the temperature to about 86. Sures feels hot when you stick your hand in it compared to the other tanks, lol. I also put in salt, about 5 teaspoons. Not sure what is a safe level, didn't want to go overboard. All five are still very active, eating well. I will attempt to change about 40% of water every 3 days and see if the helps.
I guess the good news is the growths are not any bigger today.

86 is a little high. I would like to see any disease to survive in there. Probaly a tumor on both. Did you see any other fish with those growths? Texas Cichlids are probaly one of the toughest cichlids out there. They are able to withstand colder tempatures than most and are hard to kill(by accident).

Saint should pop in soon here or wyite to give some more input but they look like tumors to me and should reduce in size themselves....as dawg said keep the water extra clean and see what happens!

Looks to me like a mild case of Lymphocystis. It's a viral infection brought on by heavy stress. Things like shipping, being in a petsmart, and I guess we can add breeding to that list.

Think of it as cold sores for fish. Ugly, but unless they grow on the gills or over the mouth not fatal.

Outside of keeping the water clean and the fish not stressed there's not much else to do. Being viral there's not anything you can get for it. The growths will go down eventually on their own, however, (just like cold sores) those fish will always be carriers.

I would also recommend that you not remove any more of the growths, since that could leave open sores which could lead to bacterial infections and all sorts of other gruesome fun.

Thanks to all, I am listening with open ears. I put my thermometer in this morning and the temp was 92 !!!! Yikes, I guess I overdid the little crank on the top of the heater lol.
But, the fish are all ok, and the tumors are smaller today. On the male I cannot find it , and on the little female, her right side is a lot better. I will post a pic of the progress in a couple of days.