goldfish lump?

[ryoga415]

I have a feeder goldfish and a shubunkin goldfish in a 20 gallon tank for now, and when they get large enough that they seemed crowded I have a 110 gal waiting for them, but I digress. My feeder goldfish has seemed to develop a "lump" on his left side. It just appeared one day, and I've been monitoring him for the past 3 days to see if it affects him, but he doesnt seem fazed. I am still concerned about my buddy though,  he lived through what is almost always fishy death; a science project, and he has quite a bit of personality.

Also, I am concerned that this may be some parasite, because about a week ago he has an open wound on the back part of his body near the tail, this healed up nicely, but I'm afraid something caused this lump.
Any ideas?

I will try to get some pictures soon, but he likes to come to the front of the tank and zip around whenever I get near, also it's a cell camera, so idk if you will be able to see.

[ryoga415]

ah, well I had to bribe them with food, but I managed to get some pictures

[spudfeger]

Hmm, it looks like some sort of a cyst, or maybe something is lodged inside him... I would try to find a veterinarian near you that will work on a fish. I hope he gets better! 

[ryoga415]

yikes, well I was looking at him again and some scales on the other seem to be raising, almost as if they are forming another cyst, and its in almost the same place as the other one...I'm afraid my fish might have dropsy, so I'm going to move him to my other tank. I really don't want my beloved shub to get infected or anything, so I'm moving the feeder (jerry) to my bigger tank. The only problem is that the other tank has 10 danios and just finishing cycling. Hopefully the danios wont nip at Jerry since he is about 3x their size, lol.

I just can't chance having whatever disease my fish has getting transfered to the other fish. Would dosing with some medication help or is this little guy doomed if he DOES have dropsy (he might just be growing little cysts for fun, idk)?

[Morgrid]

Dropsy is not contagious itself but is the symptom of another problem which has usually led to kidney failure. If that is what you have it might be cured with an anitbiotic, in which case you should probably seperate the fish for treatment. From the pictures it would be very hard to say what it is for sure but dropsy was not the first thing that came to mind.

[ryoga415]

Before I moved him to the large tank he began tilting to the side opposite of his large lump, as I put him in the new tank, this just got worse. I'm going to get some medication as soon as I can. Also, the scales on the lump are...peeling away? As if the lump is about to burst through the skin, I'm very worried, but glad I moved him to the new tank so my other goldfish doesn't mess with him.

update: he seeems to be having trouble staying afloat, and is hovering at the bottom of tank with his little fins going like crazy
every now and then he will go vertical, and then frantically go horizontal. He is still tilted.

[ryoga415]

strange, a few hours after I had placed the fish into the large tank, one of the danios bit him on the "peak" of his little lump, and broke through the skin. I woke up this morning, went to look at the fish, and he was zooming around the tank like usual, with the lump reduced by at least 50%. I placed him back in his original tank with his buddy and now he is acting completely normal, except he gets a slight tilt every now and then. The lump is still reducing in size.

So I really have no clue what that could have been.

[helenf]

Maybe some kind of cyst or infection under the skin.   Does it look red or like there is puss coming out or anything?

I would worry about bacteria coming out of the lump infecting the other fish.  Also about the wound getting re-infected.  I would keep doing water changes and isolate the sick fish until he seems completely healed.

Good to know things seem to be looking up, though. 

[ryoga415]

there is some white, puss-looking stuff coming out of the lump and these randomly appearing wound all over his body

im pretty worried, and I'm starting a Melafix cycle tomorrow
Also, it seems as if he has trouble pooping, he sits on the gravel and it takes him almost 30 minutes for a small strand, and it is often a strange consistancy or it will contain air bubbles

[helenf]

It sounds like something internal is infected.  I think he probably needs antibiotics.  Whether an antibiotic in the water will work, or whether he would need antibiotic food, I don't know. 

Melafix is good for healing, for some people at least (others are sure it is useless), but it certainly won't handle a major infection in a fish.   it might not do any harm, but I think you need to try something stronger if you want to save this fish.

I suggest you post about this on the diseases board, along with what country you are in, and see whether anyone has a specific antibiotic to suggest.  If you are in Australia (where I am), I think that tetracycline is about the only fishy antibiotic that you can get without seeing a vet, so would suggest trying that.