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This morning I was checking on my fish and noticed a strange growth on a male. The picture kind of looks fuzzy like fungus but it is not in person. It has some red blood vessel-like appearance that doesn't show up well on my camera. I was curious if anyone might know what it is and the treatment options. Thank you in advance!

Hi helepolis,

I'm no vet, but that looks like a Lymphocystis tumor.

Regards, Eric

Thanks.

I read up on it and seems to be the most likely candidate. Also read that most fish probably carry the virus and there isn't much for treatment, clean water and time should make it go away?

Yes, that's what I've read before. There have been a few people I know who try to remove the growth, but on a zebra pleco I wouldn't unless you have practice in anesthesia.

Good luck with it.
Eric

Thanks again, Eric. I'll let the fish be and update here if it goes away or more appear. I won't be trying surgery anytime soon and I'm guessing it might be like a wart where if you don't cut it all out it will grow right back.

There is much more info on saltwater forums about Lymphocystivirus and it appears to be rather common on that side of the hobby. Cleaner shrimp are good at eating/removing them.

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/FA181 is a good source of general information if anyone comes across this thread with similar issues.

3-week update, The bump on his right side has doubled in size and a new bump has popped up opposite to it. Will try and Snag pics when I can lure him out of the cave.

Hi helepolis,

A couple months late but i've also discovered the exact same lump on my L46 and was wondering how your L46 was and if you did anything to the L46.

Thanks in advance!

He just died yesterday, not 100% sure if related but for the past month, he has been out in the open the majority of the time. Id been doing daily 50% wc on my tanks hoping to trigger a few spawns and that might of been too much stress on him.

He ended up developing another wart-like thing on the other side of his head near his eye and it kind of pushed his eye up a bit. A month after this post both fell off and left a tan-colored scar that never improved or changed up until yesterday.

Loricariids do get strange growths. Lymphocytis is the most well known but has never been proven to infect Siluriformes or other related lineages like Cypriniformes, therefore the research is lacking and I've tried to work out if it's due to a physiological reason or they are asymptomatic. So for some reason we can't see it in them or they cannot catch it. But Loricariids seem very prone to papilloma's and I've seen a few in my time, there is a study (https://eafp.org/download/2014-volume34 ... olasoo.pdf) on it in Pterygoplichthys who have the very tuberous ones. I also suspect the herpes virus is more common then we think. Either way it appears, can't likely be treated, isn't fatal and only appears usually due to some stressor.
It's very vascularized which reminds me of the papilloma or herpes wart.
Tumours are a possibility and for fishes that is a sensitive area given if it's from where the gills are. There are other causes of growths.