Anyone know what this is?

[mtsuguy]

I'm not sure if it is a disease or just an accident. It just poped up earlier, or I should say I noticed it earlier. Anyone know what this is?

 

[foxesreef]

no idea - but heres a free bump

Good luck

 

[mtsuguy]

It looks like a perfect hole about 1/8, 1/4 deep.

 

[JHemdal]

Can you see the muscle tissue inside the lesion? It looks a lot like furunculosis, or "hole-in-the-side" disease, except that I'm used to seeing that on freshwater koi, catfish and salmonids. I've never seen it on a mandarin fish, but the genus of bacteria that causes it (Aeromonas) is found in marine aquariums.

Sorry, though - I have no idea how you can treat this effectively. It is a pretty tough disease to cure in freshwater fish. Injectable enrofloxicin would be my first choice if it was a larger fish...not really practical on a mandarin. The problem is that although the lesion is external, the bacteria invades systemically, so antibiotic baths will have no effect.

So, heres hoping that I'm wrong.....

JHemdal

 

[mtsuguy]

Hole

Hole

You can see inside the fish and see his muscle tissue. I really hope its not that... About how long does it take for that disease to run its course?

 

[JHemdal]

I'm not sure how long the disease course takes - and it probably varies between individuals. Sorry, I just don't have any direct experience treating this disease.
I looked it up in my copy of Stoskopf's Fish Medicine - he doesn't have much to say either. He writes, "Treatment has not been attempted in most cases of nonsalmonid furunculosis, although many Aeromonas salmonicida isolates are sensitive to oxytetracycline..."
The problem is that he is not discussing marine fish here, and tetracyclines are deactivated by the calcium in seawater.

JHemdal

 

[mtsuguy]

I think its was just an accident, it seems to be clearing up. However one of my fish seems to have ick but my cleaner shrimp seems to be taking care of him.