H. inspector growth/fungus?

[MarcW]

Hi Everyone,

I bought a pair of

Hypancistrus inspector

a week ago, it's been a week almost to the minute that they've been in their tank, with 10 ottos which were bought from the same source at the same time.

They are eating well and very active, when the male came out for food this evening I noticed growths/fungus on its gill covers, it was not fuzzy but looked a bit like a few grains of cous cous stuck there, the same on both sides but no abnormalities anywhere else on the fish. I think I saw the same thing on one side of the female but to a lesser extent. No sign of it anywhere on the ottos.

Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks.

[bekateen]

Sorry to see this. Also sorry that I don't feel fit to offer advice.

I hope they recover and get well.

Regards, Eric

[MarcW]

Thanks Eric, they are eating dinner now, so I'll see how they are in the morning.

If it's still the same or worse I'll catch them out into a small photo tank to get some better pictures, and maybe try to remove it.

[MarcW]

I got the fish out of the tank and things seem ok, certainly not worse, see pictures below.

It appears that the odontodes on the gill cover thicken towards the end or have some sort of growth/detritus stuck on them, see the terrible attempt at a macro shot with a phone! I may have brushed some of the 'stuff' off when catching the fish

It may be completely unrelated but I found what appeared at first glance to be a seed in the water with the fish, it could be from the bogwood which was soaking in the garden for a few weeks before I added it to the tank, does anyone recognize it as anything other than a seed of some sort?

looking a bit better

close up of gill cover odentodes

Seed?

[Jobro]

Marc,

some months ago I found one of my L397 males with completely reduced interopercular odontodes. All that was left was a white stump. Reminds me pretty much of what your fish shows there. Though I did not see the early stages (he is a real cave dweller). He was perfectly healthy otherwise and even bred a few times in the meantime. By now most of it has grown back but it took quite long. I was quite worried, too, for some time. But as he seamed fine I let him to his own and it worked fine.

Not saying you should not be a little worried, but at least it might be nothing lethal.

Wish you and the fish best of luck!
Its an awesome specimen!

PS: Inspectors are super delicate and maintaining water changes is top priority on these!

[MarcW]

Thanks for the information Jobro, pleased to hear it ended well for your fish, I'm hopeful it's a similar situation for me.

I'm planning to leave it be and monitor him for a while, my regular water changes are 50% per week, although it's been more often recently as I've added a lot of fish recently and wanted to make sure everything went as smoothly as possible.

[MarcW]

Hi Everyone, after whatever the growth was appeared to fall off yesterday, its back, pretty much the same as before, again, only on the male and only on the odontodes by the gill covers.

It's eating well and seems fine so I did a 50% water change, and I'll wait and see if it gets any worse. Hopefully it's similar to what Jobro described.