Small bump on underside of fish

[fixedpoint]

I'm sad to be posting in this forum again, but grateful to you for the help you've given me in the past. I've had a firefish in QT since 8/6/2014. About a week after he entered QT with a chromis, that chromis became ill and I separated the two fish. The chromis died (best guess is from uronema marinum), but the firefish continued to appear healthy.

Now three weeks later, I was feeding him and beginning my prophylatic treatment with PraziPro and I noticed a small bump on the underside of the fish. He still eats very well. However, today he began flashing and scratching on the PVC pipe in the QT. I wasn't sure if the flashing behavior was due to the bump or possibly the introduction of PraziPro.

Any ideas what this might be and what I should do?

Here are some images:

<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38664265/firefish4.png" width="800" />

<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38664265/firefish5.png" width="800" />

<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38664265/firefish6.png" width="800" />

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Do you have any ammonia in the QT? Is it a cycled QT?

 

[fixedpoint]

I did some water tests this morning.

Ammonia .4 ppm, Nitrite .1 ppm, Nitrate 2 ppm, Salinity 1.024 SG, Temp 74.6 f, pH 7.8

Importantly, please note that I used a Red Sea test kit (uses a nessler reagent I believe) and I regularly use Amquel which could lead to a false positive for Ammonia. I also use a Seachem Ammonia Alert Badge which reads zero (I'm not sure of the mechanism here).

This morning, the fish looks fine and the bulge is gone. I'm wondering if it was just a coincidence. Perhaps, the fish overate and had a distended belly and maybe when I added the PraziPro it began flashing because it felt irritation until it became accustomed to it.

Thoughts?

 

[fixedpoint]

And no, the QT was not cycled. I just use frequent partial water changes and Amquel.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

IME those badges are not always accurate. I would do a fairly decent water change and see how he does. My fire fish flashed while in the QT and it was from ammonia. The bulge could have been constipation.
Do you have any way of instantly cycling the QT such as a sponge/filter media that has been seeded from the main? I would be tempted to add a piece of LR. How much longer will he be in the QT?

 

[Deinonych]

The bulge could have been constipation.

+1

I would grab a bottle of Bio-Spira along with some ceramic media (I use Seachem Matrix) for ammonia control. Bio-spira is one of the few bacteria-in-a-bottle products that actually works. In fact, I just received three fish from LA today and they went into an uncycled QT with only Bio-Spira and ceramic media for filtration.

 

[fixedpoint]

I had a seeded sponge media but then when my chromis died and I sterilized everything I had to get rid of the sponge media. It has almost been 3 weeks since I sterilized the tank and started QT over. I've had him since 8/6, so nearly a month of total QT time. During all of this time, he has been healthy (except the recent bulge and flashing).

I was planning on keeping him in QT for another two weeks while I treated with PraziPro and then put him in the DT assuming everything continues to go well.

I do have a bunch of LR in my sump that I use as rubble for pods that I could use for cycling.

 

[fixedpoint]

The bulge could have been constipation.

That's a great point. That made me remember that yesterday when he defecated that it came partly out but it didn't leave his body entirely for awhile. Although, the poo was brown and looked normal. This seems consistent with your suggestion.