Help with identification of disease

Swetpants

New member
Hello everyone. Just looking for others thoughts on the matter. I have a purple tang with a couple small growths. One on the base of the tale (white cauliflower looking) and one on the back portion of the body (bump matching color of skin). The tang has been in the well established aquarium for 1 year. He was not quarantined before hand. The growths have been on him for 3 months and have pretty much stayed the same size. He is the king of the tank and eats and moves around like a champ. He is the only one in the tank with any such growth on him. All fish appear very healthy and eating. All water parameters are within normal healthy aquarium limits except phosphates which I am currently battling to get down to an appropriate level. Currently it is at 1.0. Recent GFO and carbon addition should help me get it down. After research I suspect it is lymphcytosis. What are your thoughts? I ask because I would rather not pull him out and QT him if there is no cure except time. I would be worried about stressing him out more in that case and making it worse. Sorry for the long winded question. Thanks
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=10433&pictureid=72332
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=10433&pictureid=72330
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=10433&pictureid=72331
 
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It looks somewhat like lymphocystis, but if it has been visible for a few months it may be something else. If the fish is eating and otherwise acting normal, I would not do anything.
 
Thanks for you input. That is my initial thought as well. I would rather not stress him more and than lose him. He is a great fish with lots of personality, however, I do not want it to spread to others if it is something else. The one thing giving me hope is the fact it hasn't spread to others in the few months he's had it. I would of taken him out immediately after noticing it but I just didn't have the means to set up QT tank at the time.
 
Lympocystis is nothing you need to quarantine or specifically treat for, unless you run a fish farm with all the same species as the Lymphocystis virus strains seem to be highly genus or even species specific.
Also the usual mode of infection is through direct contact (body contact due to too high fish density, bites, catching fish with non sterilized nets,...).
Many fish may carry the virus but it usually only breaks out when the fish's immune system is compromised (a common side effect of copper treatment).

Also Lymphocystis is like a common cold: it will go away all by itself when the fish's immune system has recovered and learned to fight the virus.
 
So what fo you think from my pics? Is this what you would guess it is. The pictures sure we're a hell of lot clearer before i uploaded them by the way. All signs point to lymp. to me but I could be wrong. The tail spot is white ish and clumpy. The body spot is also lumpy but the same color of the fish.
 
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