Need help with treating my decorated rabbitfish in qt

[Blb472]

Back story I've been searching for this fish for months happened to walk into a lfs I've never been to before and they had it. It was in a tank with a tang and its fins were torn. Bought it anyway because I couldn't find it anywhere else. However this is how the fins healed these same things are on pectoral fins.. I've been feeding it lrs herbivore frenzy mixed with kanaplex and focus as well as lots of nori sheets. I can't post a pic of pectoral fins they never stop moving

 

[Reefing_addiction]

@Jay Hemdal

 

[Privateye]

Looks like it might be lymphocystis. If so, it's not lethal, but not technically not 100% curable. It will show up when the fish goes through prolonged stress and recede after it's been happy for a while. It's kind of like warts in humans.

If that's what it is, then your fish is not in danger. It just has some unsightly growths at the moment, but if you treat it well then eventually the condition should recede. I'll defer to Jay though!

 

[Blb472]

Looks like it might be lymphocystis. If so, it's not lethal, but not technically not 100% curable. It will show up when the fish goes through prolonged stress and recede after it's been happy for a while. It's kind of like warts in humans.

If that's what it is, then your fish is not in danger. It just has some unsightly growths at the moment, but if you treat it well then eventually the condition should recede. I'll defer to Jay though!

Thanks I appreciate the advice. I have a flame angel that had lympho so I've read into it a bit only reason I wasn't sure if that's what it was here is because I thought lympho is usually white. This just looks like clumped yellow balls all over the fins. My main concern is whether or not it could be passed to the other fish. I feel at some point she's gonna be much happier in the 180 and not the 40 breeder qt tank

 

[Privateye]

Thanks I appreciate the advice. I have a flame angel that had lympho so I've read into it a bit only reason I wasn't sure if that's what it was here is because I thought lympho is usually white. This just looks like clumped yellow balls all over the fins. My main concern is whether or not it could be passed to the other fish. I feel at some point she's gonna be much happier in the 180 and not the 40 breeder qt tank

If it is lympho then the only concern is it spreading to closely-related fishes. I think in the same family as I recall. If it's not then who knows. The coloration is a little different, but I've seen lympho present as tan or gray before. It tends to affects the fins as opposed to epitheliocystis, which is typically on the body or gills.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Looks like it might be lymphocystis. If so, it's not lethal, but not technically not 100% curable. It will show up when the fish goes through prolonged stress and recede after it's been happy for a while. It's kind of like warts in humans.

If that's what it is, then your fish is not in danger. It just has some unsightly growths at the moment, but if you treat it well then eventually the condition should recede. I'll defer to Jay though!

Yep- Lymphocystis is normally grey or white, but there seem to be other viruses involved, and I can’t think of anything else that would produce lesions similar to this though.
Jay

 

[Blb472]

Yep- Lymphocystis is normally grey or white, but there seem to be other viruses involved, and I can’t think of anything else that would produce lesions similar to this though.
Jay

Thanks for the response. Thats where I was confused because the fins are yellow and the spots color matched. The fish still has a while in qt anyway its only been 2 weeks, but in your opinion should I keep the fish in qt until the spots dissapear, what if they don't go anywhere for months.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for the response. Thats where I was confused because the fins are yellow and the spots color matched. The fish still has a while in qt anyway its only been 2 weeks, but in your opinion should I keep the fish in qt until the spots dissapear, what if they don't go anywhere for months.

So - here is a thought: Lymphocystis virus causes the fish's skin cells to become gigantic in size (unlike cancer where the cells are directed to multiply). If this fish's fins are yellow, it stands to reason that Lymphocystis enlarged cells would be yellow also. The problem with this theory is that I've seen other fish with this disease that were yellow (regal angel) and their growths were white.

In any event, the standard "treatment" is isolation until the lesions disappear. That said, this is almost never seen except in newly acquired fish. One train of thought is that longer term captives have all been exposed to it and are now immune. That would mean that you possibly could move the foxface over earlier. However, my personal quantainte process, without Lymphocystis takes a minimum of 60 days (30d copper, 14d prazi, 14 d observation)....and even THAT isn't 100%, so I wouldn't move the fish over with less time than that, and the Lymphocystis may well be gone by then.

Jay

 

[Blb472]

So - here is a thought: Lymphocystis virus causes the fish's skin cells to become gigantic in size (unlike cancer where the cells are directed to multiply). If this fish's fins are yellow, it stands to reason that Lymphocystis enlarged cells would be yellow also. The problem with this theory is that I've seen other fish with this disease that were yellow (regal angel) and their growths were white.

In any event, the standard "treatment" is isolation until the lesions disappear. That said, this is almost never seen except in newly acquired fish. One train of thought is that longer term captives have all been exposed to it and are now immune. That would mean that you possibly could move the foxface over earlier. However, my personal quantainte process, without Lymphocystis takes a minimum of 60 days (30d copper, 14d prazi, 14 d observation)....and even THAT isn't 100%, so I wouldn't move the fish over with less time than that, and the Lymphocystis may well be gone by then.

Jay

Thanks so much for the help it is definitely appreciated. The water stays good and she eats plenty so ill just keep it where its at and ride it out