Bump/Mass on back of engineer goby

DapperCuttlefish · Oct 11, 2022

Today while doing my spot check feeds I noticed one of my engineers gobies has a mass/lump along its dorsal fin. I live in Florida where the hurricane passed through. So I lost a lot of my CUC. No fish loss. Was able to rotate the generator through the fish tanks turning on the pumps to keep the tanks going so many hour on and off for a week (so I’ve ended up with a massive algae bloom). I noticed Ferb (the goby) rubbing along the top of one of the rock works the other night. I’ve also noticed them chewing on the rocks. Which they haven’t done out and about before. Parasite? Hematoma? Tumor? Something else? I’m afraid to put move him to my quarantine tank as it has rock and sand in there that he will work to move that could worsen his problems.

MnFish1 · Oct 11, 2022

These are great pictures - could you please put an arrow on the area you're concerned about?

vetteguy53081 · Oct 11, 2022

DapperCuttlefish said:
Today while doing my spot check feeds I noticed one of my engineers gobies has a mass/lump along its dorsal fin. I live in Florida where the hurricane passed through. So I lost a lot of my CUC. No fish loss. Was able to rotate the generator through the fish tanks turning on the pumps to keep the tanks going so many hour on and off for a week (so I’ve ended up with a massive algae bloom). I noticed Ferb (the goby) rubbing along the top of one of the rock works the other night. I’ve also noticed them chewing on the rocks. Which they haven’t done out and about before. Parasite? Hematoma? Tumor? Something else? I’m afraid to put move him to my quarantine tank as it has rock and sand in there that he will work to move that could worsen his problems.

Looks like an injury that is healing along the upper dorsal and keep an eye on it to assure it does become infected. Assure good water quality and diet are provided focusing on ammonia and nitrate levels.
If it gets worse, treatment in a separate quarantine tank will be seachem Kanaplex

Jay Hemdal · Oct 11, 2022

DapperCuttlefish said:
Today while doing my spot check feeds I noticed one of my engineers gobies has a mass/lump along its dorsal fin. I live in Florida where the hurricane passed through. So I lost a lot of my CUC. No fish loss. Was able to rotate the generator through the fish tanks turning on the pumps to keep the tanks going so many hour on and off for a week (so I’ve ended up with a massive algae bloom). I noticed Ferb (the goby) rubbing along the top of one of the rock works the other night. I’ve also noticed them chewing on the rocks. Which they haven’t done out and about before. Parasite? Hematoma? Tumor? Something else? I’m afraid to put move him to my quarantine tank as it has rock and sand in there that he will work to move that could worsen his problems.

I've seen those sorts of lesion/abscess on certain types of fish; especially scaleless fish or those with thick skin. I think what happens is that in most fish, this sort of lesion would rupture up through the skin. With fish like these, it just sort of balloons out because of the tough skin. No way to tell the original cause of the abscess was. Some people would be tempted to lance it with a tuberculin syringe, but catching this fish would likely be impossible. I'd just observe it for now.

Jay

DapperCuttlefish · Oct 11, 2022

MnFish1 said:
These are great pictures - could you please put an arrow on the area you're concerned about?

Thanks, I hope this better identify the location of the bump

DapperCuttlefish · Oct 11, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
Looks like an injury that is healing along the upper dorsal and keep an eye on it to assure it does become infected. Assure good water quality and diet are provided focusing on ammonia and nitrate levels.
If it gets worse, treatment in a separate quarantine tank will be seachem Kanaplex

Thank you!

DapperCuttlefish · Oct 11, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
I've seen those sorts of lesion/abscess on certain types of fish; especially scaleless fish or those with thick skin. I think what happens is that in most fish, this sort of lesion would rupture up through the skin. With fish like these, it just sort of balloons out because of the tough skin. No way to tell the original cause of the abscess was. Some people would be tempted to lance it with a tuberculin syringe, but catching this fish would likely be impossible. I'd just observe it for now.

Jay

Thank you so much, I agree with trying to catch him, although accustom to target feeding, catching would be a nightmare. Unless nessecary I don’t want the undue stress on the fish. This info helps!