Strange growth on Emperor Tetra?

One of my mom's fish has a small growth on his side just behind his pectoral fin. It looked like it was about 1mm across, and another smaller one was starting to grow on his other side. He doesn't seem to be acting any different than the other two.

She doesn't have her own test kits so I can't post exact conditions, but when she brought a sample into the LFS everything checked out fine. Local water PH is 7.0, but she's recently put a small piece of mopanI wood in to lower it a bit for her cardinal tetras.

Tank is 25 gallons with an Aquaclear 20 and a corner filter. Stocking is 4 cories, 4 cardinals, 3 shrimp, 2 neons, a siamensis and the 3 emperors. The siamensis and cardinals were both added after the growth appeared. I can't remember if she got the emperors at the same time as the cories or not. Neons were in there from the beginning.

She had a sick Cory in there for a while, but whatever he had was completely different (she first noticed his behavior, rapid breathing and lethargy, then when she brought him back to the store they noticed his gills were red and puffy. He was like that from when she first got him, the other 3 have been fine all along).

I took some pics with her camera while I was there, I'll have them up as soon as I get them.

 

If it is a small white spot than it is most likely Ich. as far as the Cory I would ask if your tank is cycled because it probably had ammonia poisoning.

 

Yes, my tank was cycled. None of the other fish were suffering. When I took the cory back to the store, they said it was definitely sick.
The spot on the emporer tetra almost looks like it is kinda bloody.
I will post a photo as soon as I figure out how...

 

If it is a small white spot than it is most likely Ich. as far as the Cory I would ask if your tank is cycled because it probably had ammonia poisoning.

Ich was my first thought when she was describing it, but it's partly red and at least twice the size of any ich spot I've seen.

The tank should be cycled, I think it's been running for about a month now and every time she brings samples in they check out fine. If he had ammonia poisoning they should have detected elevated levels when she brought him back, wouldn't they? But they said everything was fine and gave her a credit, which they wouldn't have done if they found any problems. They've got him in a tank upstairs now, trying to nurse the poor guy back to health.

 

Got the photo. It's a bit small, but you can see the little reddish bump there up by his head.

 

Got a higher-res pic. Now it looks to me like some sort of lesion- maybe another fish attacked him??

 

Does it look like an open sore that started as a small bump? Also, it's hard to make out in the pic but is there a cloudy patch on it's tail?

Looks like a bacterial infection to me.

 

Does it look like an open sore that started as a small bump? Also, it's hard to make out in the pic but is there a cloudy patch on it's tail?

Looks like a bacterial infection to me.

Mom says there's no cloudy spot on his tail, and the spots are looking better! The big one on his left side is smaller and no longer bloody.

I've passed on the suggestion that it's bacterial and she's going to pick up some medicine.

 

If it is a bacterial infection, it would be getting worse quite quickly. If it's getting better, it could have just been an injury. It could have scraped itself on something. You may not want to treat with meds if this is the case. A lot of meds will kill your biological filter. Just keep the tank really clean and a lot of members used garlic juice to soak their food in because it helps their immune system. You can also add some stress coat.