Zebra Danio has a white lump on her side

Good day!

This morning as I was observing my tank, I noticed that my one danio was hiding in the plants and not being active. She seemed to be just swimming in one spot and gulping more than the others, looking a little fatter than normal. I thought maybe an oxygen thing, so I turned up the air pump slightly, and no changes so I thought maybe bullying and left her alone to not be stressed with me at the tank.

After cleaning the tank and trimming back the plants, I noticed that she has this massive white lump on her side. Everyone else in the tank seem fine.

No new plants or fish for quite some time now and I've had these danio for a few months, a group of 8.

Ammonia and nitrites are at 0
Nitrates are hovering around 30
Tank mates are honey gourami, ruby tetras and corydoras with a nerite snail and some hitchhiker ramshorns, lol.

Is anyone able to tell me what it could possibly be? Should I be concerned for my other fish?

I've got a photo of both sides of her.

 

Hello ! Sorry to hear about your lil fishy having issues.

To me this looks like a tumor , which means there’s nothing you can do. Her fins look clamped but otherwise she looks healthy. This may be a situation where you wait and see and put her down when the tumor grows to the point it starts affecting her. Clove oil is the kindest recommended method when the time comes. But that’s your choice

 

Hello ! Sorry to hear about your lil fishy having issues.

To me this looks like a tumor , which means there’s nothing you can do. Her fins look clamped but otherwise she looks healthy. This may be a situation where you wait and see and put her down when the tumor grows to the point it starts affecting her. Clove oil is the kindest recommended method when the time comes. But that’s your choice

Thank you, it really sucks when they get sick. I appreciate your reply.

I did try to google her symptoms and all the serious things didn't make sense. I thought tumor was well given that she does look healthy and is still swimming just fine, only hiding. I did just feed them and she chose not to eat, but I will monitor this and see if it's ongoing or just a one off today.

I really should buy some clove oil for this purpose. The only two deaths I had was a small pygmy who just died and a wild honey which my boyfriend dealt with and said he never wanted to have to do that again. Thanks for the reminder on that.

 

I'm actually bumping this as she seems to have gotten her appetite back, but the lump has gone away and she almost looks like there is a chunk taken out of her side. Her fins still appear to be clamped as well, but I also have a gourami sitting on the bottom with fins clamped too. Although the clamping stops sometimes when he's swimming about it eating. Earlier today he was swimming with the clamped fins.

I checked all of my water levels today and everything is as it was the other day too with nitrates down to about 20.

Maybe I'm being paranoid, but of course this happening before I leave for this whole weekend. Eek!

Should I be worried?

 

Huh ! Well that’s not how tumours work or behave …

with another fish showing symptoms I can’t rule out that this is a bigger issue. Possibly a worm/ parasitic infection that’s burst off the fish. If that is the case then you could be entering another round of fresh infection. I will stress that I am NO expert when it comes to fish diseases so please take what I am saying with a massive grain of salt .

Whilst your water tests look good , there is a lot you can’t test for or control , like parasites.

I really hope I’m wrong though !

 

There is a very good chance it was an abscess. Fish can have abscesses and they often cause a lot of damage but this looks like it was a relatively shallow one - at least it hasn’t compromised the coelomic cavity so there‘s hope it will heal up.

I’d be doing daily water changes of 50% volume for a week to 10 days and so long as you don’t see any sign of fungal infection, and no sign it’s infected with bacteria ( reddened edges, enlargement), then I’d just do that. If you wish and have some, apply some Methylene blue directly to the wound, just as it comes from the bottle may help ward off infection, particularly fungal infection. It’s a trick I learned from a vet a long time ago.

What kind of gourami is it? How long have you had it?

 

Wow, I missed both of these replies and never got notifications on them. Boo!

The good news is that the Danio never had any additional issues and no medication required either. It's like nothing ever happened and she is great.

As for the gourami, it is a honey and almost a year old. I went away for the weekend and thought for sure I was coming home to a dead fish and she was still swimming around and looked thin, but fins were no longer clamped. A few days after that I went away on vacation and thought the same thing, because she still looked weak. I came home from 5 days away and she was still alive. She had a few good feedings and it was like nothing was ever wrong. She's still alive and well now.

I have had no other issues with my tank either. So I suppose that maybe the abscess was what it was. I'm not even sure, and I watch my tank like a hawk lol.

Thanks for the replies and sorry I missed them.

There is a very good chance it was an abscess. Fish can have abscesses and they often cause a lot of damage but this looks like it was a relatively shallow one - at least it hasn’t compromised the coelomic cavity so there‘s hope it will heal up.

I’d be doing daily water changes of 50% volume for a week to 10 days and so long as you don’t see any sign of fungal infection, and no sign it’s infected with bacteria ( reddened edges, enlargement), then I’d just do that. If you wish and have some, apply some Methylene blue directly to the wound, just as it comes from the bottle may help ward off infection, particularly fungal infection. It’s a trick I learned from a vet a long time ago.

What kind of gourami is it? How long have you had it?

Huh ! Well that’s not how tumours work or behave …

with another fish showing symptoms I can’t rule out that this is a bigger issue. Possibly a worm/ parasitic infection that’s burst off the fish. If that is the case then you could be entering another round of fresh infection. I will stress that I am NO expert when it comes to fish diseases so please take what I am saying with a massive grain of salt .

Whilst your water tests look good , there is a lot you can’t test for or control , like parasites.

I really hope I’m wrong though !

 

Well that’s good news ! At least they are all good