My Zebra Danios Lip Lump.....?

Question

I have a 5 gallon aquarium, with 2 zebra danios and a male betta fish. However recently my danio Perky (yeh..weird name!) has grown what looks like a tumor on its lip, the tumor seems white, and is bulging outwards; it does not stop the fish swimming, eating. breathing etc. Does ANYONE know what could be wrong with my darling fish??? I need to know NOW, because I'm going on holiday soon, and I want to sort it out now!!

I don't believe it is columnaris as it is only the bottom lip, and looks more like a ulcer. As I am going on holiday in 3 days, I cannot medicate it....

Actually..it looks more like an overgrown jaw, a bit like a piranahs, the only difference in its behaviour is that he seems to be hanging out at the bottom of the tank abit more... HELP!!!

Answer 1

Mine had this, a weird bump on their top lip. I think it's do to stress or an inbalance in the chemicals. So a water change and see if that helps.

Hmm... bottom lip and hanging out at the bottom. Have you checked your chemicals yet? If they are fine and everything else in the tank is doing well, then it's just the fish. It might just be an ulser. First things first. Check your chemicals.

Answer 2

Sounds like columnaris, also known as cotton mouth disease. It is a bacterial infection that is pretty common as far as tropical fish go.

#Symptoms: White spots on mouth, edges of scales, and fins
Cottony growth that eats away at the mouth
Fins disintegrate beginning at the edges
'Saddleback' lesion near the dorsal fin
Fungus often invades the affected skin
Rapid gilling in cases where gills are infected

It sounds like though if this is what it is, it's at an early stage since the fish is still eating. Since your tank is only a 5 gallon, I'm guessing you don't have a hospital tank. The trouble with treating infections and fungus in a tank with a betta is that bettas are often a bit more sensitive to the medications than other fish. So, while you may cure the danio, you may also kill the betta. The other problem is that many infections such as this, even if it is not columnaris, are very contagious, so you have to do something.

I would suggest waiting a couple days and seeing if a. it gets worse. b. any of the other 2 fish begin to show symptoms c. any new symptoms develop.

Something you can do right now though is a 25-50 percent water change using a gravel vacuum if you have one (if not, they're pretty cheap and you can find one at your local pet store). You can also add aquarium salt to the tank. Again, this is very cheap. I got a large bag of it from a petstore for about 1.50 3 years ago and still have it. (add about 1 tsp since you have a 5 gallon tank).

Another possibility is that is the dreaded ich. Although, ich is usually numerous white spots and not one large spot.

Some bacteria are also very sensitive to higher temperatures. Ich is the one I am thinking of. There is some success in raising the water temperature to up around 83 degrees for about a week to kill off the ich. However, if the temperature is below this (like even at 81 degrees) it will just speed up the progression of the problem.

If the water change and salt don't help (give it a few days) there are products such as maracyn and maracyn 2 which may help, although which product you use is highly dependant upon what type of problem your fish has, so it's impossible to recommend one over the other. Maracyn is usually the first that is used, with maracyn 2 reserved for more resistant infections. (both are antibiotics, maracyn is erythromycin).

One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of times, these infections and things show up when a fish is under stress. This could be due to poor water quality, overcrowding, or if the fish is new, the stress of moving. If poor water quality is an issue, make sure you are doing at least weekly 50% water changes. If your tank is new and not cycled yet, this could also be part of the problem. Google "nitrogen cycle" and it will give you some links to learn about that. Basically, fish waste is converted to ammonia (highly toxic to fish) which is then converted to nitrites and then finally to nitrates. Ammonia and nitrites are very toxic to the fish, nitrates on a lower scale. The problem in a new tank is that the bacteria that do these conversions are not present, so ammonia can build up quite high before sufficient bacteria are present to break it down.

If this is a new setup (less than a month) this could be the issue. Take a water sample to your pet store and usually they'll run a test on it for you for free.

Also, this may be a fungal infection. Check otu some of the links I provided for more information (and pictures) to help you identify your problem. Good luck!