# dark lump on my spilo's belly! What do I do?



## StickMan (Oct 31, 2003)

Earlier this was a white bump, now it has developed into a small brownish circle on his belly. 
New pics, please help me. He's acting weird lately and I have to move next week, so he's gonna be stressed some during that. Is it a parasite, bacterial infection, fungus, tumor or what?


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## Scrap5000 (Mar 4, 2005)

No joke, that looks a lot like these worms that used to be imbedded in the guppies I used to get from petland discounts. I could be totally wrong, don't want to freak you out even more...


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## StickMan (Oct 31, 2003)

Today i've noticed a rather large lump on his other side around the same place as the brown dot is on the other side. Like his belly is really swollen out, but only on one side, and the other side has the dot on it! AHHHH! I'm really worried now, he's my only piranha! Will salt help this? I have melafix and pimafix and salt on hand, but havent added anything to the tank. I will go and buy whatever it takes to treat this! Please give me suggestions.


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## StickMan (Oct 31, 2003)

ok, today I decided to add salt today since nobody knows what the hell this is. I added the first day's dose according to the salt thread(1tsp/gallon) and i'll do that for the next 2 days and hope for the best.

Man this sucks


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## StickMan (Oct 31, 2003)

He's hanging in there, the lump doesnt seem to have gotten any bigger, but it has gotten a bit darker. I've added day 2 of the salt treatment. These pics are a bit bright because the salt makes the water temporarily cloudy. The dark spot on his left side got a bit darker, and the lump went from normal color to a slightly darker color. Zoom in of the affected areas:










Any more ideas about what this is? Not sure if the salt is doing anything or not. I just hope its getting better rather than worse. I really really really dont want to lose this fish!


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## Scrap5000 (Mar 4, 2005)

I swear, I still think the dark spot looks just like the worm parasites. 
If you feel crazy then get heavy, heavy gloves, and pull him outta the water in a net and pick the spot with a needle - you might just pull out an icky, squirming worm. But hey, don't blame me if it's not, or if he bites yer fingers off or if he winds up dying from that. I'm just crazy like that and what I would do isn't necessary good advice for anyone else...
Dunno what the hell the big lump is, tho...

Good luck!!


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## StickMan (Oct 31, 2003)

Don't think I wanna try the needle method, sounds a bit scary. Anyone have a better idea about what this is? What happened to all the fish doctors in this forum?


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## StickMan (Oct 31, 2003)

Ok, got him moved over to the new house today, had to have stressed him out, i know it stressed me. The condition has worsened. PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT THIS PLEASE. I have no idea what it is, and all i've treated with so far is salt. The original scab on his one side has now healed, but the lump on the other side has progressed. maybe you guys can now tell what it is.


















PLEASE HELP! I hope he doesnt die before someone can identify this!


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## Scrap5000 (Mar 4, 2005)

Wow dude, I dunno what the f*ck to say about that...looks like he's got an alien about to pop out of his belly, just like in the movie!

Seriously, does anyone know what this could be? Somebody help this poor guy out...damn...


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## HeroRecon (Feb 11, 2005)

im no expert and all i did was do some reading by looking up some of the signs that it seems ur fish may have. One thing it could be is an actual tumor on the fish. 
2) papillomas, 'warty' types of growths, can be quite large, smooth or cauliflower-shaped, white, red or pink

3) lymphocystis, various sized, white to pink masses on the skin and/or gills. Diagnosis is by microscopic examination of 'wet mount' taken from the lesion.

* There are no treatments for these growths. They are usually benign and often self-resolving. There is always the risk of secondary bacterial infection
this is from www.fishdoc.co.uk
...i hope that this might help in some way...


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## StickMan (Oct 31, 2003)

Good info, thanks. Doesn't really help me much, as i dont think i want to go trying to scrape a piece off of it. Glad to see someone replied with something tho! Keep them coming people.

It's just so weird how his symptoms don't really seem to match anything i'm finding, except maybe one of these types of tumors. Isn't it extremely uncommon for a fish to grow a cyst or a tumor? anyone got any numbers on this sort of thing?

By the way, i added some pimafix today to try and combat any secondary infections. He didnt seem to enjoy the pimafix much, but if its gonna fend off the bad bacteria, so be it.


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## HeroRecon (Feb 11, 2005)

good.... id imagine is pretty rare i don't have any numbers but i haven't seen it much.... hope he is doing better!.. GOOD LUCK


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## StickMan (Oct 31, 2003)

Crap. The lump got a bit taller, apparently busting thru the skin, its hard to tell. Check out the latest pic here. You can really see how far it's sticking out.










It is no longer red on the end, but instead a light brown color. Is this his stomach or some other internal organ poking out? I've been dosing the tank with pimafix and melafix for about 4 days. Doesnt seem to make a difference one way or the other. He isnt scratching, or flashing the side of the tank. When healthy he was fairly timid, staying in his cave all day and coming out at night to eat. Now he seems fairly restless, coming out of the cave to do a lap around the tank probably like every couple minutes, then back to the cave. Sometimes he just sits outside of the cave by the driftwood. He never did this before while healthy.

I really have no idea what to do about this. I have a hard time telling if he has been eating or not. He still mauls things, but doesnt seem to get much down. I've been trying to give him worms for about a week now and he mauls them but it looks like most of the worm goes uneaten, if not all of it. I'm really worried about this, its so weird!


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## StickMan (Oct 31, 2003)

OK, I hadn't posted on this in a while since it looked like he was getting better. The lump went down quite a bit, left a small wound which is healing up nicely. The problem is another lump has formed on another part of his body. Im starting to think this is some sort of internal parasite or something. Anyone have any ideas? I think it's bothering him now because he's been doing a strange move where he turns sideways and swims fast to scratch his side up against the top of his cave. This is odd behaviour that i haven't seen in him before.

After the first lump went down, he started eating again after having not eaten for about 2 weeks. I figured he was getting better. Now this has sprung up and he's scratched himself on the top of his cave so much that he's scratching the lump up quite a bit. Here are some new pics:


















I think these are pretty good pics, you should be able to tell me something from these. You can see the new lump scratched up and you can see the old lump healing. I'm half tempted to dose the tank with some parasite medication, but I don't really know of anything out there for internal parasites. If this thing is a parasite it hasnt reared its ugly head outside of his body. Maybe its a bacterial infection? I think i've stumped every fish forum on the internet with this one!


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## redbelly93 (Dec 12, 2004)

Hey how are u doin. I really dont have a clue what that is but tomorrow I will call a guy I know with 30+yrs experience with fish. He is a lfs private owner and any time I have had problems he has been able to help me fix it. I will post you on here or pm you tomorrow and let you know what he thinks. IMo I would have thought tumor but I think it couold be internal parasite like you think. Either way I will ask tomorrow for ya. peace and gl with your p till then
Nice clear pics btw


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