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I've been in the hobby 40 years & have never seen this before. I'm being told fungal but I'm thinking parasite. It's killed 3 of my plecos so far & is spreading to the others (about 20 in there). I've treated with metro & prazi--no luck. Started treating last night with salt & Kanamycin sulfate.

Isn't this lymphocystis caused by a virus ???

Sure does! Looks like pieces of cauliflower. If viral, how to treat?

My friend, I do hope this could help.
It's good information about the Lymphocystis disease.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa181

To my believe viral diseases in fact are untreatable. It can cure itself, isn't very lethal (only as specific organs are infected or by secundairy infections. Think that's important to keep an eye on (treat secundary onfections). But I can be wrong so like to read other opinions. Cheers Aad

I introduced Lymphocystis into my system earlier this year when I added a datnoid to my tank. He had a small white bump on his dorsal which I thought was just fin damage. The disease soon spread and caused devastation.. I lost an upsetting amount of fish, some of which I had kept for many years.

Every time I thought I had gotten rid of the disease other fish showed signs, sometimes months later.
I ended up shutting down, sterilizing everything and starting again with new fish.

My advice is to catch it early and do similar as even if the signs go away it will probably come back again.

Mmmm that's not a nice story grrrr. Strangely experiences on the web show less lethal casualties I think.

I have been treating with salt & Kanaplex. I believe the fish looks better today, as do some of the others. Of course, he wouldn't come out of the plant for me to take a pic. I'll keep trying to coax him. Maybe some algae wafers will help.

3 days post treatment, Kanaplex/salt. The one on his right eye is completely gone!

Looks better???

Here's the other affected fish. Weird, that it attacks the gill plates 1st...

Hi.

any more luck in treating this..? i have exactly the same issue with some of my plecs which have not responded to any fungal or bacterial treatments..

The marks keep moving around his body. The ones that were in the 1st pic are gone on the left side of his body but there are more elsewhere. I am also starting to see a few spots on other plecos now.

I can have my vet make a slide of it but neither of us know what we're looking at!

Pics would help.

Has anyone ever tried catappa on this?

There are several pics of the most affected fish & another, where it is starting on his gill plate (that's where it seems to start 1st). I wonder if that's affecting their breathing--killing them at the end? Here is a recent pic after a full treatment of Kanaplex/salt. As you can see, it's not eating. Yes, I have treated for IPs.

Is that as a bath or treating the entire tank? Do I need to move the Knife fish?

Pufferpunk wrote:I can have my vet make a slide of it but neither of us know what we're looking at!

Have your vet do the wet mount. You can take pictures through the scope using a smart phone to post. If any other fish are affected you could also do a gill clipping.

you need a parasitologist to ID it. or someone who studies invertebrates - particularly parasites. I took an invertebrate class in college that covered parasites but i don't think that's enough for this.

.Plecomania. wrote:you need a parasitologist to ID it. or someone who studies invertebrates - particularly parasites. I took an invertebrate class in college that covered parasites but i don't think that's enough for this.

I have the background to potentially ID it and if not I have friends that can.

ok then OP should do what you said. I am interested in seeing posted photos of it too Maybe I can help as well.

The best way to scrape a fish is to use the edge of the coverslip. Also place a drop of the fish tank water on a slide and put the cover slip down on it.

I'm sorry--I lost this fish 2 days ago. I lost 4 plecos in total. I still had several that had the parasite on their gill plates. I have since treated with API Super Ich Clear & salt. In 3 days, it is all gone. There is a fellow I am talking to via PM with the exact same problem.

yeah, I've started treatment today. Im glad you treated for parasite as if fear i too would have lost more fish. Still have one fish with a growth on its tail and she sat on the glass for just a second but enough time for me to see she has not really been feeding. very hollow tummy, so i hope I'm not too late to save her.

I've got some information from this book.

They recommend a kind of fomular "FMC" to against most of bug!
Overehere in my country Thailand, there is a product which is made of the same thing pretty close to "FMC" and it's proved to treat the disease on pleco very well.

Some disease which's usually attack pleco.

this is not like any pleco disease I've seen or can find in a book OR the net.. and cannot find a single picture of lymphocystis that looks like this… anywhere..

http://s1348.photobucket.com/user/dayne ... sort=3&o=0
http://s1348.photobucket.com/user/dayne ... sort=3&o=5