Loaches Online Forum

This is the fish mentioned on the Kub thread: a Striata that has horizontal connections between the stripes. Same connections exist on the other side.







A need a bit of help here: any idea what is the white growth under its eye? The other side is normal. Fish seems to behave normally, eats, swims around, picks on others a little. The growth did not respond to two days of antibiotics so far...but it does not look bacterial (or fungi, or anything I've ever seen).

Suggestions are welcome; I'd like to keep this one alive to see how the pattern changes.

The photos aren't sharp enough to really tell what the growth is. Is it a growth or perhaps a parasite? Is it possible to get sharper pics or a more explicit description of the 'growth'?

those are some nice patterns! look nothing like my striata!

I greatly doubt a sharper image is possible, these 3 are the best out of 200 tries. The fish is small.

The white spot is solid (not fuzzy), slightly longer than 1" in length, sticks out. It looks like a teenage pimple.... I don't think it can be a parasite, but it can be an inflamed bag of fluid...or a growth on the jaw bone..or even the bone itself (I suppose the bone is pretty close to the skin.)

The fish is getting anti-parasite, anti-protozoan, and anti-bacterial treatment, no effect seen so far. Yeah, forgot to mention: they fish behavior seems to be normal, it is eating and shoaling around.

As I said, I've never seen this kind of growth on any fish and not sure how to deal with it (or should I be trying to deal with it).

those are some nice patterns! look nothing like my striata!

LO, ty! --- being able to chose from a large number has some advantages....but this is a small fish, the pattern may be gone by the time it is the size of yours.

That's not B. striata. See one of Emma's pics (used for convenience). Striata are exactly that - densely striated.

It is a Striata all right, maybe with a little Rostrata blood in it.
This is a Juv, <1", Emma's I think is 3"+. Except for the horizontal connections it is identical to any other Striata juv's, I've seen lots of them now.
If mine lives, the stripes will eventually (2-3 years) split into something like Emma's...the reason this particular fish is interesting is to see how they will split when the original pattern is already messed up.

Here for comparison two others I have:


Another Juv on the right (this one is a little messed up to and also had skinny), but a slightly larger one on the left shows more developed stripes already (it is >1", I think).

oh oh entering the dangerous geographical/regional variation debate.

it almost could be a histie too.

i hope the lumpy bit gets better. please keep us posted on how the stripes develop.

Mark in Vancouver wrote:That's not B. striata. See one of Emma's pics (used for convenience). Striata are exactly that - densely striated.

The 'density' of the striations increase over time. Juvi's have much less stripes. Looks like striata to me but as we all know many botia are hard to tell apart when so small. None of my dozen striata have nearly as many stripes as the one of Emma's but I dont think anyone doubts them being Striatas.

About the bump... you really shouldnt let your loaches chew tobacco lol! j/k. Could the bump be a tumor? I suppose that would be difficult to actually tell.

crazy loaches wrote: About the bump... you really shouldnt let your loaches chew tobacco lol! j/k.

Of course not, chewing tobacco may really damage their teeth. Only hemp. j/k.

Yeah, it could be a tumor, but I'm not in a position to do a biopsy. I'll buy a scope eventually....but for now, all the diagnostics has to be by visual...

I think I'm developing some understanding of what this thing may be.

I think I managed a more revealing photo:



A perfect circle, it seems. Fully internal. Consistent both with a bag of pus and a lymph node inflammation, but not really with a tumor/bone growth. i wonder if there is a lymph node somewhere in that area.

Have anyone seen anything like this?

..........................

Hmmm.... I hope Emma does not mind use of her photo:



Could this possibly be the same?

Yeah that photo is much better. Clearly a growth or something as opposed to a parasite. Does the fish seem bothered by it?

Mike, of course I don't mind you using my photograph. But....that is not the fry with the growth/lump. What you're seeing in that pic is just a reflective spot.

Here is a picture of the little loach with the lump, taken back in July:



So it's nothing like what you are seeing on the B. striata (which you can obviously now tell having seen this pic).

Sadly this lump on the young Weather Loach has got a lot bigger and he's not doing so well. I think it's probably a tumour of some sorts and it has started affecting his swimming. He's not grown as large as the other two either. I have a feeling that there is not going to be a fairy tale ending for this little chap.

Emma

bslindgren wrote:Yeah that photo is much better. Clearly a growth or something as opposed to a parasite. Does the fish seem bothered by it?

The trick was to totally turn off the light when making the photo..this brought the fish out and killed the reflections...
No, the fish seems to be behaving normally...even eats medicated flakes which loaches typically hate...which does not mean that it will be alive tomorrow.

----

Emma, big ooops.

Yes, your dojo's lump is certainly of different kind, and it seems to be attached to the spine. I've actually seen this before at a local Petland (I look at dojo's at the stores a lot since I cannot watch them at home), the fish (3"?) was swimming erratically/rolling over. You did not try feeding it antibiotics? (I'm doing it now, but I might be using an insufficiently strong one or it is not eating enough of it..I'll be switching around Wed) [I'm not suggesting your dojo's disease is bacterial, but it is not impossible that it is and maybe worth trying]

Mike, instead of concentrating all your efforts on treating fish with various ailments of unspecified nature with possibly innapropriate medications, why don't you focus your apparent intelligence on trying to learn to identify healthy specimens in the first place? You are head and shoulders above anybody on this forum in your apparent continuing inabilty to learn to do this or learn by your mistakes.

I happily profess almost total ignorance of most medications in my 42 years of fishkeeping due to almost always purchasing healthy fish from reputable suppliers and therefore not having the need to treat anything.

Prophylactic treatment with antibiotics is just plain stupid if there's no specified bacterial problem as it increases the possibilities of build up of resistance and might affect effective treatment in the future when it's really needed.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Martin.