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Anyone have any ideas what the hell this is on the fin of my sucky fish?

And what to do if anything about it?
Matt

Unfortunately its not very well shown...Any chance for a better photo of it?

Looks like a cyst of the first pectoral spine. Is it soft or hard? A better photo would be appreciated.

I'm afraid I cannot get a photo of it at the moment cos I stressed the fish out enough taking this one.
It is softish and you can see blood vessels in it and it is not a single lump but looks like it is made of many little lumps.
It is also semi transparent.
Matt

I think I would amputate the tip of the fin with some heavy duty scissors or a toe nail clipper for pets. That is what I would do, but I am not a veterinarion and could be wrong.

I think a positive ID and treating the whole tank it came from would be better than amputation, as its not in a life threatening place yet.

I would go with Haarvard's suggestion except I would use surgical scissors and cut straight across the base of the growth and avoid actually clipping the pectoral spine. Dab any mild antiseptic like mercurachrome or iodine on the wound; maybe keep it in QT with a tsp salt/gal for a few days.

As suggested, it's a viral infection and not curable with any medications so the only way is to cut the cyst of from the fin. It looks like it is attached even to the pectoral fin and in that case you have to cut behind the parts where it's attached, dont breake the cyst. And like Larry suggested use some anticeptic on the wounds after to avoid other infections.
Even that is not so common this disease it shows up from time to time, mostly placed on a fin. The fish dont suffer so much of the virus and when the virus "mature" the cyst breakes and dissapear after some weeks, but that is the way the virus spreads to other fishes and the risk is high that you after some time will have more trouble.

Janne

Thanks guys
Matt

I have done as suggested and managed to cut it off with a little bit of the underlying stuff. Dabbed with antiseptic.
The only problem is that I think it had already burst.
What do you think will be the worst case for this.
The tank that he was in has a UV steriliser on it do you think that it will help.
Matt

If the cyst have start to burst the virus will spread in the water, a UV steriliser will probably kill most of them if the flow not are to fast when passing the bulb.

Janne

How long would you expect the virus to remain viable whilst water born. I am asking as I need to move one of the filters to start up a new tank and also I don't want to be chucking it down the drain with water changes and into the ecosystem.
Matt

In general it is very hard to say how long a virus can survive. Some virusses can withstand a lot, others not.

Personally I would not worry too much, because on the one hand the virus did come froms somewhere, indicating you most likely had a source somehere near your house, and on the other hand virusses tend to be highly specific. As no Loricaris does life around your house chanses of contaminating the local wildstock are very slim - at most.

However, if you do prefer to do something before dieposing of the water, virusses are vulnerable towards UV radiation, but less than bacteria. Hence a fairly large doses would be required.

Perhaps another option could be to add some hypochlorite (commonly sold as bleach) to the water, but I do think the cure would be worse than the problem

How about spreading the water over my vast patio and leaving it dry off?

The virus will not be spread in our environment, it's specific to tropical fishes and even that I dont know where "Fishy heaven" is located I think your climate is to cold compare with a tropical location.
We have a similare virus in cold water fishes but not the same specie or how to define them.

The virus lay latent in mostly VC fishes and bloom when the fish get down of some reason.

Janne

I wish your L47 fast recovery