ulcers/lesions

If it isn't to late, and you're desperately looking for some advice, hopefully someone can help you out.

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McEve
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ulcers/lesions

Post by McEve »

In a Norwegian forum I'm frequenting there's been two reports lately about lesions on the abdomen of Ancistrus. Does anybody here know what this is?

Image

and

Image

These are two different fish. There's been no suggestions so far as to what this could be, so I thought I'd ask you guys if you've ever seen this before?
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Post by wandj »

OMG that looks awful!!!
And it seems to affect the anal/vent. I have never seen it myself, but on both fish it is in the same place. I know that sometimes ulcers happen on Rainbowfish due to poor diet, and then it is pretty much incureable. As for plecos, ???.

Sorry I couldn't help, but I also wonder if it's diet related. Could also be a bug.
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Post by McEve »

It sure does look painful :( And remember, these two fish are owned by two different people. And not bought at the same place - unrelated in all manners.

One of the fish developed this after having been fed cucumber the day before. Could it be a cucumber seed..? hmmm... personally I don't think so, as it's very common to feed them cucumber... You'd think it would happen more often if it was due to that....
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Post by Barbie »

I'd be more apt to think it's a parasite of some type. What a godawful nasty hole though! I wouldn't think it was diet related, that second fish seems to be in very good condition, other than the gaping hole in it's underside!

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Post by McEve »

I was told the anal opening is gone, but still working.

it would almost be easier if the fish was in a generally poor condition wouldn't it, but as you point out Barbie, they both look well fed and good otherwise.
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Post by McEve »

Number one is still feeding too.
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Post by Adam »

It looks bacterial in origin to me. I had the very same thing happen to a young gold ancistrus, luckily it didn't get as bad as these 2 fish.

This is what I did; I removed the affected fish and placed it in quarantine. I then treated the wound by drying off the affected area and then covered the vent area with Koi Doc a medicated waterproof topical dressing. I repeated the treatment 3 times I think over a two week period, I noticed an improvement each time. I noticed that the wound was becoming less red in appearance and that white tissue was starting to form around the wound, I also raised the tank temperature to 30 degrees centigrade. No additional medication was added to the quarantine tank, a water change was done every 2 days as the tank was only filtered with a small internal filter. The fish fed through out its ordeal and eventually made a full recovery, it remained in quarantine for about 2 months. The fish was eventually released back into the community tank, the wound had completely healed over. However there was a visible dent and discolouration where the infection had been.

Unfortunately it wasn't a happy ending as I found the fish dead a number of months later, It showed no visible signs of infection.

This is pretty much how I use to treat any of my Koi that had ulcers and the success rate was very good.
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Post by McEve »

Thanks Adam. I found some interesting info about this here, and it pretty much comfirms what you say.

Thanks for the taking the time and interest, it's much apreciated!
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Post by Adam »

No problem McEve,

This sort of thing is quite common in Koi especially when they are coming out of hibernation following a harsh winter, their immune response is very low. I've seen it and had to treat it on a number of occassions, as long as they have been caught early ulcers respond well to treatment. However don't bother adding medication to the water as it rarely works, the wound itself must be treated directly with topical treatments.

I have found that much of what I know and practised as a koi keeper has helped me greatly now that I have defected to the tropical side. I find that a lot of the science is pretty much the same.
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