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[Help] White Spot / Growth on angelfish

16K views 23 replies 6 participants last post by  mjolnir28 
#1 · (Edited)
I’ve just got back home from being away on business for 2 month's, i've had my girlfriend looking after my planted tank and obviously something has gone very very wrong.

She called me about a week ago to tell me that a white pimple has appeared on my angelfish, the pimple protrudes from the fish by about 2mm and there is no redness or soreness around the pimple, its defiantly not ich as i keep my tank at 86F and all my fish have been acclimatising to this temperature over a 8 month period and thus far have been fine.

I'm about to remove my angelfish from my planted tank into a quarantine tank i’ve just set up but i’ve no idea what to treat it with because i don’t know what the problem is in the first place.

No other fish in the tank have shown any kind of illness / spots / growths on there body.

This is a picture of said angelfish http://img196.imageshack.us/i/spotgk.jpg/

Edit: The growth / spot is about 2mm round and sticks out about 2mm, the end of it does look sort of "fuzzy"

I've really no idea if this is a fungal or bacterial infection and would really like someone to point me in the right direction so i can hopefully medicate this fish.

Tank: 55 Gal, heavily planted, 3x 54W T5 lighting, dosed with flourish excel + diy CO2, dry mixed ferts, eheim 2026 filter.

Stocked with:

2x Marble Angels
2x Kribensus
6x Bronze Cory’s
2x Pepper Cory’s
1x Dragon Gobie
2x Golden Long Fin Rams
9x Harlequins
1x Pandagarra
1x Glass Catfish
 
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#2 ·
Well i seperated him into my 10 Gal quarantene tank and added 4 teaspoons of marine salt to the water, as soon as a put him in the white lump on the side of him had fallen off and left behind a red sore.

Ive added some maracyn to the tank also and will just monitor him for a few days to see if the sore heals up.

Anyone have any idea as to what the problem could be?
 
#6 ·
I would keep the water clean, can't see much from the photo you provided, hard to tell.
Is the Angel behaving normally(eating, moving, no other problems?) I wouldn't go crazy with all the meds.
If other fish is ok, then chances are it is not bacterial.
Pimafix and melafix would help the wound, if meds involved i like the jungle meds(external and internal)
Hope all will be OK.
 
#9 ·
Well i cant work out whats up with this still, my water quality is in my opinion perfectly crystal clear with a PH of about 7.2 which is CO2 controlled, i have a inline UV filter and do water changes of 30% monthly, amonia is 0ppm.

No other fish are showing signs of stess and are just perfectly happy, yet why my angelfish got this "pimple" in the first place is rather worrying. I think ill keep him in quarantene until he is 100% and there is no redness aroud where the lump was.
 
#11 ·
I had the same thing happen to an angelfish of mine a few months ago. No other fish were sick, and she acted completely normal, but she had a little white 'pimple' on her side behind one of her pectoral fins. I didn't have a quarantine tank to put her in, so I left her in the main tank, turned the temperature up from 78 to 85, and salted the water pretty well. Just like yours, it fell off, left a nasty looking red wound, and healed up within a week. It never happened again, and I haven't seen it before. I have no idea what it was. Maybe a bite from another fish that got infected and made an abscess?
 
#16 ·
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_salt

Sea salt is primarily composed of the following ions[5], listed in order of descending abundance by weight:

Chloride (Cl-) 55.03%
Sodium (Na+) 30.59%
Sulfate (SO42-) 7.68%
Magnesium (Mg2+) 3.68%
Calcium (Ca2+) 1.18%
Potassium (K+) 1.11%
Bicarbonate (HCO3-) 0.41%
Bromide (Br-) 0.19%
Borate (BO33-) 0.08%
Strontium (Sr2+) 0.04%
Everything else 0.01%

Although the salinity of sea water varies quite a bit worldwide, the relative abundances of the constituent ions remain the same.
 
#17 ·
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_salt

Sea salt is primarily composed of the following ions[5], listed in order of descending abundance by weight:

Chloride (Cl-) 55.03%
Sodium (Na+) 30.59%
Sulfate (SO42-) 7.68%
Magnesium (Mg2+) 3.68%
Calcium (Ca2+) 1.18%
Potassium (K+) 1.11%
Bicarbonate (HCO3-) 0.41%
Bromide (Br-) 0.19%
Borate (BO33-) 0.08%
Strontium (Sr2+) 0.04%
Everything else 0.01%

Although the salinity of sea water varies quite a bit worldwide, the relative abundances of the constituent ions remain the same.
Right, the majority is NaCl. None of the rest of that is gonna cause a problem for fish. It's the "gourmet" salts that have the various higher mineral contents that turn the salts different colors and flavors. Some of those may be iffy... :smile:
 
#18 ·
And if it isn't refined the minerals can raise the ph well above 8.0 which can effect fish, especially softwater species such as angelfish.

The ph of sea water is usually around 8.4 and only the water is eliminated through the evaporation process. Thus, pure sea salt will buffer water back to that same ph level.

Mined salt is actually closer to pure NaCl than sea water and will not alter the ph nearly as much. I use water softener salt which is mined and considered 99% pure.
 
#20 ·
Variations in minerals will affect the color and clarity of the salt crystals. Only the cleanest veins are used for table salt and softener salt. I think there would be less contaminants in mined salt than what the Mississippi and other rivers are dumping into the oceans.
 
#22 ·
Well all is well with my angelfish now, i had him in my salt dosed tank for 4 days then waterchanged and had him in a tank with primafix and medifix and he's fine so ive put back in my main tank now.

Thanks all the comments, yet ive still no idea what on earth was wrong with him in the first place.
 
#24 ·
I know this post is old but just in case anyone's keeping up with it or for people googling it, this sounds like lymphocystis to me aka cauliflower disease. Its caused by the virus lymphocystivirus from the family Iridoviradae. Its a self limiting viral disease. Its actually the number one viral disease that affects aquarium fish. The virus causes certain cells to multiply and causes a lump. It usually goes away on its own. Its not very contagious and when it is its usually spread via direct contact. But it is recommended to quarantine the affected fish until 1 month after it has completely healed to avoid any transfer of infection at all. It is rarely lethal and when it is its usually BC of a secondary infection or if the lump impairs eating. Hope this helps someone in the future.
 
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