Strange growth on rabbit fish

[Leerph]

I ordered in some new fish last week and 1 of them was this rabbit fish. When he came in he was really skinny and had a small white spot on his side. I've had him quarantined for about 5 days and the white thing on his side has gotten way worse as shown. He has eaten almost nothing. I've never seen anything like this before. Any ideas what it is?

 

[av8soulfly]

looks like a viral infection. If the immune system is healthy, it will go away on its own.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Looks like an ouchy-boo-boo... Let’s hope he fattens up and shakes it. I’d buy a blister pack of fish eggs— extremely hard to resist— then work up to Mysis, etc. Best wishes!

 

[socalfishy]

That looks like lymphocystis, you should see it grow rather quickly. Clean water, get it to eat and it will drop off on its own. Im dealing with this right now but with a pink tail triggerfish, the nodes have fallen off my fish im just waiting to see if it sprouts back up an what the affected area looks like in a few days.

Remove that fish if its in your main display as lymphocytis can be spread around through fish to fish contact.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I ordered in some new fish last week and 1 of them was this rabbit fish. When he came in he was really skinny and had a small white spot on his side. I've had him quarantined for about 5 days and the white thing on his side has gotten way worse as shown. He has eaten almost nothing. I've never seen anything like this before. Any ideas what it is?

That isn't Lymphocystis. It is either a bacterial infection or (much more rarely) a fungal infection. Was the fish shipped to you this thin?

You probably won't be able to manage this in a tank with invertebrates like that. You'll need to dose antibiotics in a treatment tank.

Just a guess here - but see how the spots are in a line? Random diseases don't really do that. I suspect that this fish got spiked by another fish's dorsal spines at some point prior to you getting it.

Jay