What's wrong with my wrasse?

[reverendmaynard]

I purchased a trio of Labouti Wrasse from an online vendor about 12 days ago. I did not QT based on something I read which suggested these fish did not do well in QT. One of the females died after about 3 days, presumably from the stresses of shipping and acclimation. The other 2 fish seemed to be doing fine. Both are out and about, picking at the lr, and eating frozen brine, krill, and mysis, even some flake and pellet food.



Anyway, about 4 days ago I noticed this nasty lesion on the female. It looked similar in size, shape and color to a human zit. I know, because I have pics, that there was no sign of this problem several days before. It does not seem to have grown in size since, but was a little ragged, now a little smoother, and the fish is apparently unaffected based on its behavior. She continues to dart in and out of the rocks, looking for bugs.



I have scoured the web for a disease or parasite the fits this description, so I was thinking possibly physical damage of some sort, perhaps bitten by another fish. Today I have been able to get a clearer look at it, and it almost like something erupted out of it's skin. Here are some photos...

Fish at 2 days...

2 days ago...

Today...

Please, can you tell me what is wrong with this fish and what I should do for it, if anything?



Thanks in advance,

Maynard.

 

[kevin2000]

Not sure but that looks alot like lympho .. a viral disease sometimes called cauliflower disease. A bit like warts in humans and is more unsightly than anything else. If its lymphocytis then there's not much you can do .. as a viral problem there no medication that's going to do much and more often then not this problem goes away if you maintain water quality and feed the fish nutritional food.

Hope this helps.

 

[reverendmaynard]

Thanks, found some interesting reading on that, but I don't think so. This is one large mass, not small lumps, and it's not on the edges of the fins or mouth.

 

[bchristie]

I second the opinion that it looks a lot like lymphocystis, and the relatively rapid onset and lack of change in behaviour support this presumptive diagnosis. Lymphocystis can emerge as a single large mass, without smaller satellite masses emerging, and is not by ANY means confined to the fins, opercles, or edges of the mouth, though the bulk of cases do present with those type lesions.

In fact it seems (just from my own observations of a few hundred cases) that when lymphocystis emerges form the body it is more likely to be in a single large mass than multiple smaller ones.

The best course of action is to wait it out as long as the fish is acting and feeding normally.

If you do a google image search you can find a half dozen or so cases of lymphocystis presenting with single large nodules from the body of fishes.