Farlowella baby help needed

[HarveyWallBanger]

Hello,

I have a breeding colony of farlowellas and am having an issue with some of the babies in the grow out tank. Some of them have developed a nodule on their snouts (not sure if that's what it's called) and I'm wondering a) what is it? b) is there anything I can/should be doing to help them out? Not the best picture, but hopefully it shows what's going on.

Thanks!

[HarveyWallBanger]

Here's a better shot of a larger baby with the same condition.

[bekateen]

Hi HarveyWallBanger.

Welcome to PlanetCatfish!

That cauliflower-like lump on the snout reminds me of a viral infection known as Lymphocystis. There is no medicine treatment I'm aware of, and I believe it is contagious. Best course of action is to isolate the affected individuals from the rest of the tank (or isolated the healthy fish from the tank of infected fish). If you're comfortable, you can try sedating the fish and cutting off the tumor, but that has its own risks. Some fish heal on their own, some fish drop the tumor and some fish keep the tumor and it grows.

I can't say what will be the outcome.

Here's another post on the subject, suggesting a different pathogen

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.

Good luck,
Eric

[HarveyWallBanger]

Thanks for the information, I appreciate it! I'm going to keep an eye on the current population and see what happens. I think I should probably setup a separate grow out tank for future generations (I've got another 48 eggs set to hatch in the next day or two), although, I would imagine it's something they probably get from the parents?