Surgically removing lymphocystis on Chryserus Angel

[MrCaveman]

I have a beautiful 3" Chryserus angel who has a bad lymph infection on its mouth preventing it from eating. It was in qt with copper and other fish but as soon as this infection popped on it I isolated it to a 10g qt. I have been treating with Melafix. This fish was super healthy and eating well, nori, pellets, food soaked in vitamin-c. I now have boosted the food with focus, metroplex and kanaplex. I did a 100% WC on the 10g tank yesterday...

I see no improvement on this fish for the last week. The virus has actually grown. I know this stuff typically goes away on its own. But he cannot eat anymore. Thankfully he was well fed, so I'm guessing he can survive for another week or two without food. However, I'm doubtful that the infection will just go away... I'm considering surgically removing as much as I can from his mouth with a clean razor blade. I have never done this before, but I feel there is no other option if I wish to save this fish.

Does anyone have advice or experience with performing this kind of surgery on a fish? I've read up anesthetizing the fish in order to do this. Is there any kind of easily accessible fish anesthetic made for this hobby? I work at a fish shop so I have access to many things with years of experience; but I've never been at this point trying to perform a surgery on a fish.

 

[Zalick]

My wife is a vet and said if its anything like a papaloma in dogs, cutting it off can help the immune response to fight it off. She doesn't know anything about fish or lymphocystis though. I would only remove it as a last resort. Read the wiki page on it. valcyclovir/acyclovir might be good option too.

 

[farfromsea]

This article might be helpful although some might say to let the virus take its course so to speak and avoid the risk of surgery

http://www.louisiana.edu/sites/research/files/NeifferFishSedation.pdf


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[laga77]

A healthy fish can fight off almost anything. Especially Lympho. Keep your water quality high and feed fresh, frozen, and live foods and it will run its course and go away.

 

[pfan151]

Can you send let a pic?

 

[ThRoewer]

I would remove it. I've done it before and it worked. You may also want to add an immune booster like beta glucan to the food. It helps much more than antibiotics (which do very little against viruses).

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