Possible Lymphocystitis on Male Pintail Fairy Wrasse?

[Brit’s Fish]

I’ve had this Pintail Fairy Wrasse for about 3 months - he’s my second as my first one passed from some other weird symptoms. Anyhow, I noticed a growth of some sort that looked like Lymphocystitis to me (white, kind of cottony or cauliflowery growth) and just sort of observed it for a while. None of the fish in this system, including this one, have been displaying any other symptoms of parasites and since I’m not really aware of much treatment for Lympho, I just watched to see if it evolved. The growth maybe grew a little and then one day a couple weeks ago, it was gone and a much smaller white mark was left behind. I have two cleaner shrimp & 4 peppermint shrimp in this tank so maybe someone picked it off. Again, I’ve just been keeping an eye on this & now I’m noticing it changing again & it almost looks like it’s getting deeper into his body? I can also see that some of the “white stuff” is flapping away from his body when the flow hits it just right… not sure how else to describe that.

At what point should I be concerned? Does this look like something other than Lympho? Is there any treatment I should offer? I suppose he looks a little on the skinny side, but all of my fish are pretty fat… does he look skinny to anyone else?

He is still eating normally, not hiding and is in fact, very friendly to the point that when I’m working in the tank, he’ll swim up to me and I can touch him if I want to. I haven’t seen any bullying from any of the other fish in the tank at all. Even the clowns don’t care when he comes near their anemone even though they’ll chase most everyone else away.

EDIT: Scratch that - he doesn’t seem to be eating normally after all. I’ve tried PE Mysis pellets and frozen Spirulina Brine this morning. He grabbed one brine shrimp that I saw but otherwise, he looks like he’s going for food but then just kinda swims through it but doesn’t make really any attempt to grab anything. I did see him eat some frozen food yesterday but he did the same thing yesterday which I just chalked up to him missing the food. I turned the flow off today to see if he’d still have trouble. Wrasses don’t really seem to miss too often though, from my experience. What gives?

 

[fishguy242]

#fishmedic

 

[vetteguy53081]

Although the spot on tail appears as lympho, Do I see flesh/injury on its back?

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Although the spot on tail appears as lympho, Do I see flesh/injury on its back?

That’s actually the part I was worried about. That’s where the original growth was and then it was possibly picked off? I have to go through my camera roll to see if I have any pics of what it looked like before.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Although the spot on tail appears as lympho, Do I see flesh/injury on its back?

Actually, I hadn’t even noticed anything on his tail. Looking again, I don’t really see anything so it could have been the not so great quality of my photos.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

That’s actually the part I was worried about. That’s where the original growth was and then it was possibly picked off? I have to go through my camera roll to see if I have any pics of what it looked like before.

And sorry for the triple post, but I don’t have any clear photos of what this wrasse looked like before the growth was picked away. Is it possible that the shrimp have now OVER cleaned him & thus eaten into his flesh a bit? I can certainly imagine not having much of an appetite after getting picked at like that.

 

[fishguy242]

please try to get current pic of damaged area ,possibly a video with still shots taken out of.
i know it can be hard to get a wrasse still.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

please try to get current pic of damaged area ,possibly a video with still shots taken out of.
i know it can be hard to get a wrasse still.

The pictures in my original post from a few hours ago were taken during the writing of the post. I’ll try to get a decent video.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

The pictures in my original post from a few hours ago were taken during the writing of the post. I’ll try to get a decent video.

The dorsal fin lesion isn't Lymphocystis - looks like an injury, but that is an odd spot for that to happen.

Jay

 

[Brit’s Fish]

The dorsal fin lesion isn't Lymphocystis - looks like an injury, but that is an odd spot for that to happen.

Jay

Do you think I can just keep an eye on it for the most part? As long as I see him eating, should he heal? Also, does he look skinny or okay? Sorry for all the questions - just want to be a good fish mom.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Do you think I can just keep an eye on it for the most part? As long as I see him eating, should he heal? Also, does he look skinny or okay? Sorry for all the questions - just want to be a good fish mom.

There really isn't any treatment you can do for this in your main tank...you would need to catch it and move it to a treatment tank and dose with a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic. So - "watch and wait" is likely to be the only thing you can do for it.

Edit: I just read that the wrasse is off its food. That is pretty serious, combined with the lesion growing larger. I'm afraid moving and treating would be the only thing to do here, and that may not stop the issue in time - sorry!

Jay

 

[Brit’s Fish]

There really isn't any treatment you can do for this in your main tank...you would need to catch it and move it to a treatment tank and dose with a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic. So - "watch and wait" is likely to be the only thing you can do for it.

Edit: I just read that the wrasse is off its food. That is pretty serious, combined with the lesion growing larger. I'm afraid moving and treating would be the only thing to do here, and that may not stop the issue in time - sorry!

Jay

Thank you for getting back to me, Jay!