Tumor on Whiptail???? (pic)

CatBrat · Post by **CatBrat** » 24 Feb 2005, 07:50

My female Crocodile Whiptail (Anyone no which sp. it could be?) has grown what I think is a toumor on its pectoral fin. It seems to have lots of small red veins running into it, which makes me think it's 'feeding' off the fish. It has only taken around 2-3 weeks to get to this size. Is there anything that I can do? Does anyone know what may have caused it (It was in my tank which broke and the fish were left with absolutly no water for an unknowen amount of time, could this have triggered it?)?

Heres a picture....

Thanks for any help,
Cheers, CatBrat.

Yann · Post by **Yann** » 24 Feb 2005, 17:08

Hi!

Yeap look like some sort of tumor... I doubt there is much possible cure for such thing especially at such developed form.

THe stress caused by the incident has certainly fragelize its immune system and could have trigger this!!

Cheers
Yann

Post by **Janne** » 24 Feb 2005, 20:31

It can also be a viral infection and not a toumor, when it got broken the virus gets free and infect other fishes..and your Whiptail will heal the wound and look normal after some weeks/months. This disease can't be cured but you can use a very sharp knife or scissors and cut this part away to minimize that other fishes get this virus.
It's only infecting when it gets broken and the pectoral fin will heal after your operation...the pectoral will stay a little smaller, the only good thing in your case is that the abscess are sitting on a easy place for removing.
The wound will not bleed so much and he will be ok...barely notice that you have cut a small peice away from him.

If you dont do anything this will come back regulary and maybe not on the same place..next time it can be on the body and not be able to remove, it's usually broken out when something changes in their environment...but it's not common and I have only seeing this on wild caught fishes before.

Janne

eclipsecatfish · Post by **eclipsecatfish** » 25 Feb 2005, 02:25

when the tank broke did it fall on the floor or did anything fall in the tank? you can cut it off and after you cut it off I would get melafix or pimafix and put it in the tank as a medication.

Post by **Barbie** » 25 Feb 2005, 03:51

Janne is definitely correct on this one. MY female L333 had a tumor very similar to that one a few months ago. It was growing at such an alarming rate, I decided I'd better remove it. I took a sharp pair of scissors, a hot lighter (to stop the bleeding) and performed amateur surgery. They'll bleed pretty prefusely, so I really would consider cauterizing it somehow an important step in the process. I only went back from the tumor about 1/8" and she's had no recurrence and recently spawned. I don't think it necessarily hurts them, but can eventually grow large enough that removing it would be risky.

Barbie

CatBrat · Post by **CatBrat** » 02 Mar 2005, 04:10

Thanks a lot for all your help and suggestions

Well I got home on Sunday morning, all ready to cut the tumor off, but when I found the Whiptail the tumor was gone, lol

. It must have fallen off at some stage, but I couldn't find it anywhere in the tank. I will keep an eye on it to make sure that it doesn't come back, but since it came off the fish has been a lot more active and feeding well.

Will update you later.....
Cheers, CatBrat.

Norman · Post by **Norman** » 03 Mar 2005, 09:50

Hi CatBrat,

Good News !

I think your whiptail is a dark type of Hemiloricaria lanceoalta. So the dorsal fin looks like.

see you
Norman

CatBrat · Post by **CatBrat** » 03 Mar 2005, 18:36

Thaniks Norman

Thats what I had been thinking too.

Cheers, CatBrat.