Odd bump on my valmingi tang

[suicideissleep]

I noticed a small bump not discolored on my tangs head couple days ago thought he ran inti somthing but now its huge and i noticed couple holes in it today and at one point after i fed the tank i noticed the bump was ozing some weird color stuff. Looking deeper into it i noticed in the holes it sorta looks like green stuff but he has green on his face right there so im stumped plz any help would be helpfull thank you

 

[suicideissleep]

 

[ThRoewer]

Any chance you can use a flash to get a white light image? Actinic light is horrible for identifying anything.

Does it look like a part of the fish, like wart or some other growth or more like something that sits on the fish? In the latter case it may be a parasitic copepod.

 

[snorvich]

In the latter case it may be a parasitic copepod.

You mean isopod?

 

[suicideissleep]

Its under its flesh what ever it may be. To me it looks like a big boil and then yesterday there was about 7 holes in it and at one point it was pussing/bleeding. Sorta looks like a green tint in the holes i can try to get pics

 

[ThRoewer]

You mean isopod?

No, actually about half of all currently known species of copepods are parasitic.
Most are highly specialized like Lernaea which is a member of the Siphonostomatoida

Actually crustacean would be more correct to include parasitic isopods and Argulus.

 

[suicideissleep]

 

[suicideissleep]

It looks real bad today but no green stuff

 

[ThRoewer]

I've never seen something like this on a tropical fish.
It looks like some tumor or cancerous growth.
But I would not yet exclude a rare parasite.

How long do you have that fish and does it show any behavioral signs of disease?

 

[alprazo]

If interested, Pm me your address. I will send you the supplies and instructions to do a biopsy. Mail the specimen back to me and I will run it through my pathology lab. It is something not familiar to me, does not appear to be a parasite, maybe a neoplasm, I just don't know.

 

[suicideissleep]

Thats what i said im stumped ive had this fish for over a year now with no problems the only thing ive noticed isit wont eat off the algea clip anymore will only eat free floating but was thinking its in pain. Also the fish is 17 inchs long that thing is about half inch long and sticks off its head atleast a quarter of a inch. It looked like a boil but that comes to a single head looks like this sucker has five or six heads and they are popping or opening one at a time. Seems like it turns greenish in the spot thats going to open next also now you can look into it the holes now look like red meaty stuff inside

 

[suicideissleep]

Weird part is there wasnt even a sign of thus thing a week ago it blew up in about three days then loks like its draining its self. To me it seems what ever it is came from the inside

 

[suicideissleep]

Someone sugested hole in head but not sure def stumped

 

[suicideissleep]

Anything

 

[alprazo]

I was serious about the offer. If the tang dies in the next couple of weeks, you can probably assume it was something serious and not just a fascinoma

 

[ThRoewer]

If interested, Pm me your address. I will send you the supplies and instructions to do a biopsy. Mail the specimen back to me and I will run it through my pathology lab. It is something not familiar to me, does not appear to be a parasite, maybe a neoplasm, I just don't know.

What kind of diseases can you look for?

 

[suicideissleep]

I really couldnt cut a peice off my fish

 

[alprazo]

If you want to know... when the fish dies, and if the growth is still present, shave it off with a scalpel or box cutter blade and put it into 10% buffered formalin. If you freeze the tissue, the freeze artifact will make it difficult to read. Therefore you must obtain the formalin beforehand. PM me and I will give you an address to mail it to. Otherwise I'm pretty sure your question will go unanswered.

Pathology will tell you the nature of the problem - neoplasia, inflammatory, infectious. It may also provide the cause or diagnosis of the lesion.

With the use of tricaine, skin biopsies, scale scrapings, gill clippings and rectal swabs are relatively easy procedures to perform on live fish and can be very helpful in diagnosing a problem.

 

[klondike4001]

If you want to know... when the fish dies, and if the growth is still present, shave it off with a scalpel or box cutter blade and put it into 10% buffered formalin. If you freeze the tissue, the freeze artifact will make it difficult to read. Therefore you must obtain the formalin beforehand. PM me and I will give you an address to mail it to. Otherwise I'm pretty sure your question will go unanswered.

Pathology will tell you the nature of the problem - neoplasia, inflammatory, infectious. It may also provide the cause or diagnosis of the lesion.

With the use of tricaine, skin biopsies, scale scrapings, gill clippings and rectal swabs are relatively easy procedures to perform on live fish and can be very helpful in diagnosing a problem.

I'd take him/her up on that offer, you'd pay big bucks to have a vet lab do those tests. If you get them a sample you may yet save your fish, but it's up to you.

 

[sandyland]

Do you live near a nuclear power plant. To me it looks a lot like the 3 eyed fish from the Simpsons.
Sorry to joke. I hope you get this figured out and all ends well. Please post the results if you get any