Management of Lymphocytes

[cryingrn]

I have several tanks. One of my tanks houses a pair of oman clownfish and no other fish (nothing planned either).

They both have developed what Im assuming are lymphocytes. Usually, they are white-ish bumps on their pectoral or caudal fins that come and go with no noticed ill-effect to my fish. Both my male and female clownfish will get them.

My main question is two-fold. I am normally careful about cross-contamination between all of my tanks, but my oman tank is only 2' away from my 180g. Do I need to worry about aerosolyzed viral particles ending up in the 180g? I have never noticed lympho in any other tank, and while I recognize it's normally not-serious I would like to keep it out of my other tanks if possible.

I am also wondering if there is anything I can do to minimize symptoms. It feels like the lympho bumps are constantly on one of the fish, and they have been reoccurring. I feed a varied diet of various carnivore foods (usually mysis or brine shrimp but sometimes chopped krill) soaked in vitamins. Also TDO pellets. Usually twice a day. However, my female is quite aggressive to the male. She tolerates him, especially if they are both just free-swimming, but chases him out of the haddoni constantly. I am unsure if stress from this bickering is causing this reoccurence. Or if it's normal for fish with lympho to have bumps on a regularly reoccurring basis. I am this close to removing the haddoni, at least temporarily, to see if theyll chill out since there was zero squabbling until they had a host.

Regardless, I just wanted to check in on reducing transmissability between tanks and if there was anything I could do to keep noticeable symptoms to a minimum. Pictured is my smaller male who has two bumps currently on his pectoral fins close to the base of his fin

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have several tanks. One of my tanks houses a pair of oman clownfish and no other fish (nothing planned either).

They both have developed what Im assuming are lymphocytes. Usually, they are white-ish bumps on their pectoral or caudal fins that come and go with no noticed ill-effect to my fish. Both my male and female clownfish will get them.

My main question is two-fold. I am normally careful about cross-contamination between all of my tanks, but my oman tank is only 2' away from my 180g. Do I need to worry about aerosolyzed viral particles ending up in the 180g? I have never noticed lympho in any other tank, and while I recognize it's normally not-serious I would like to keep it out of my other tanks if possible.

I am also wondering if there is anything I can do to minimize symptoms. It feels like the lympho bumps are constantly on one of the fish, and they have been reoccurring. I feed a varied diet of various carnivore foods (usually mysis or brine shrimp but sometimes chopped krill) soaked in vitamins. Also TDO pellets. Usually twice a day. However, my female is quite aggressive to the male. She tolerates him, especially if they are both just free-swimming, but chases him out of the haddoni constantly. I am unsure if stress from this bickering is causing this reoccurence. Or if it's normal for fish with lympho to have bumps on a regularly reoccurring basis. I am this close to removing the haddoni, at least temporarily, to see if theyll chill out since there was zero squabbling until they had a host.

Regardless, I just wanted to check in on reducing transmissability between tanks and if there was anything I could do to keep noticeable symptoms to a minimum. Pictured is my smaller male who has two bumps currently on his pectoral fins close to the base of his fin

lymphocystis is viral, not parasitic and will go away on its own if it develops. Lympho is a condition and not a disease. Often its associated with water quality issue as simple as elevated ammonia or nitrate and can be that of water from LFS and not yours. Assure to provide Good water quality monitored by a reliable test kit and feed nutritious food with fats such as LRS fish frenzy, plankton, choppedkrill and mysis shrimp.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I have several tanks. One of my tanks houses a pair of oman clownfish and no other fish (nothing planned either).

They both have developed what Im assuming are lymphocytes. Usually, they are white-ish bumps on their pectoral or caudal fins that come and go with no noticed ill-effect to my fish. Both my male and female clownfish will get them.

My main question is two-fold. I am normally careful about cross-contamination between all of my tanks, but my oman tank is only 2' away from my 180g. Do I need to worry about aerosolyzed viral particles ending up in the 180g? I have never noticed lympho in any other tank, and while I recognize it's normally not-serious I would like to keep it out of my other tanks if possible.

I am also wondering if there is anything I can do to minimize symptoms. It feels like the lympho bumps are constantly on one of the fish, and they have been reoccurring. I feed a varied diet of various carnivore foods (usually mysis or brine shrimp but sometimes chopped krill) soaked in vitamins. Also TDO pellets. Usually twice a day. However, my female is quite aggressive to the male. She tolerates him, especially if they are both just free-swimming, but chases him out of the haddoni constantly. I am unsure if stress from this bickering is causing this reoccurence. Or if it's normal for fish with lympho to have bumps on a regularly reoccurring basis. I am this close to removing the haddoni, at least temporarily, to see if theyll chill out since there was zero squabbling until they had a host.

Regardless, I just wanted to check in on reducing transmissability between tanks and if there was anything I could do to keep noticeable symptoms to a minimum. Pictured is my smaller male who has two bumps currently on his pectoral fins close to the base of his fin

Can you get photos under whiter light? Lymphocystis typically infects the trailing edges of the fins and it isn’t super common in clownfish, so I want to rule other issues out if possible.

I don’t think anyone has done any studies on if Lymphocystis can be aerosolized. I know direct contact will transmit it, and I presume it can transmit through water.

Lymphocystis is self-limiting and only infects newly acquired fish, so I don’t worry to much about it.

I posted an article on it in the library here - I’m on my phone, otherwise I’d link it for you.

 

[cryingrn]

Can you get photos under whiter light? Lymphocystis typically infects the trailing edges of the fins and it isn’t super common in clownfish, so I want to rule other issues out if possible.

I don’t think anyone has done any studies on if Lymphocystis can be aerosolized. I know direct contact will transmit it, and I presume it can transmit through water.

Lymphocystis is self-limiting and only infects newly acquired fish, so I don’t worry to much about it.

I posted an article on it in the library here - I’m on my phone, otherwise I’d link it for you.

Yes Im heading to the gym now, but when Im home again I will change the lights to white and take a picture. I apologize about that.

I am not 100% sure it is lymphocystis, I dont have much experience dealing with disease in my fish, but it is the closest thing I could think of. Usually, it will be 1-3 small bumps on the pectoral fins or caudal fins of my clownfish. I also almost exclusively see them on the parts of the fin closest to the main body (but still on the fin itself). I have never seen bumps on the main body or seen clusters of them. And usually how it has gone is my male will have a few bumps, they will go away and then my female will have bumps, which will then go away and then my male will get them again at some point. Almost like they are slowly taking turns with it- but that could just be coincidence. And there have also been periods where no fish will have bumps and it will just start back up again

 

[cryingrn]

lymphocystis is viral, not parasitic and will go away on its own if it develops. Lympho is a condition and not a disease. Often its associated with water quality issue as simple as elevated ammonia or nitrate and can be that of water from LFS and not yours. Assure to provide Good water quality monitored by a reliable test kit and feed nutritious food with fats such as LRS fish frenzy, plankton, choppedkrill and mysis shrimp.

Thank you. I did do an ICP test recently. I had a stray voltage leak from my return pump and frustratingly my GFCI didnt trip, so I just wanted to make sure nothing leeched into the water from that. Various minor elements were out of whack and my phosphates specifically were elevated, but I have since increased the amount of water I'm changing out and things in the tank generally responded positively.

 

[cryingrn]

Can you get photos under whiter light? Lymphocystis typically infects the trailing edges of the fins and it isn’t super common in clownfish, so I want to rule other issues out if possible.

I don’t think anyone has done any studies on if Lymphocystis can be aerosolized. I know direct contact will transmit it, and I presume it can transmit through water.

Lymphocystis is self-limiting and only infects newly acquired fish, so I don’t worry to much about it.

I posted an article on it in the library here - I’m on my phone, otherwise I’d link it for you.

Are these pictures better? They seem white underneath... maybe fluid-filled? They resolve on their own after a week or two generally (with no outward ill effect to my fish). But then a month later return in various spots on their fins (but again, usually closer to where the fin attaches to the body)

 

[vetteguy53081]

Are these pictures better? They seem white underneath... maybe fluid-filled? They resolve on their own after a week or two generally (with no outward ill effect to my fish). But then a month later return in various spots on their fins (but again, usually closer to where the fin attaches to the body)

There is no lympho noted here and in fact these clowns look great

 

[cryingrn]

There is no lympho noted here and in fact these clowns look great

That's a relief! So the two small bumps on my male's fin are nothing to worry about? They have never acted like anything bothered them for the months that Ive had them. I was just mildly concerned about those bumps they were getting

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Are these pictures better? They seem white underneath... maybe fluid-filled? They resolve on their own after a week or two generally (with no outward ill effect to my fish). But then a month later return in various spots on their fins (but again, usually closer to where the fin attaches to the body)

For sure that isn’t lymphocystis. It might be a mild case of an unknown vesicle disease. I did a write up about it here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/unknown-vesical-disease.1130/

 

[cryingrn]

For sure that isn’t lymphocystis. It might be a mild case of an unknown vesicle disease. I did a write up about it here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/unknown-vesical-disease.1130/

Interesting. I will try to do some more reading- thank you!

 

[MnFish1]

I don't know if it's your photo or your glass, but to me your water looks a little 'cloudy'. If it is, it may be part of the puzzle as viruses like lymphocystis and some vesicle disease are likely made worse in 'dirtier' water. I would not worry much about your Phosphate, but what are your other parameters

 

[cryingrn]

I don't know if it's your photo or your glass, but to me your water looks a little 'cloudy'. If it is, it may be part of the puzzle as viruses like lymphocystis and some vesicle disease are likely made worse in 'dirtier' water. I would not worry much about your Phosphate, but what are your other parameters

Possibly the glass- the water looks clear in person and there is no haze or cloudiness to it. I did also take this video while feeding them to get him to come out from underneath the anemone a bit (he doesnt normally hide but he was being camera shy so I dropped in some food to entice him out)

SG is 1.026sg
kH 8.0
Ca is 401
Mg is 1281
Nitrates 10.26
Phosphates were 0.7 (not 0.07 but 0.7)

Various trace elements were either too high or too low. Those were specifically pulled from my ICP test I had performed. I also moved up from a 15% weekly water change to a 25% water change every week and things have generally responded positively.