DrKate

I occasionally buy feeder guppies for my baby garter snakes. Just this past week, the new shipments of young guppies (3/4" to 1" long) at three different aquarium stores (of generally good reputation) were covered in beige/pink cauliflower-like growths. Other feeders, including the Endler's livebearers that are invariably mixed in tanks of feeder "guppies," don't seem to be afflicted. Most of the affected fish only have one, but they can be quite large. They can be located anywhere on the head, body, or tail. The growths are very friable - when I froze some of the fish, for instance, the larger growths broke off. I haven't got a picture - yet - because of course it's darned near impossible to get a small fish to stay in focus. Smaller fish - less than 3/4" - seem to be much less affected.

It really doesn't look like ICH - the growths are quite large and stick out from the body, are not white, there's usually only one growth per fish, and it seems to be affecting guppies exclusively.

So my concern is somewhat different from the typical aquarist I suppose, and I'm having trouble finding an answer. This sounds a lot like lymphocystis, and I understand what that disease is about. But is there any other disease you folks know of that would cause large cauliflower-like growths on entire tanks full of guppies? I'm not interested in treating it (that's the stores' problem!) so much as knowing what it is and whether it's a parasite that could be passed to my snakes.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!