White nodules

[n.hanke]

Hi,

In addition to the white pussy stuff that one of my discus seems to be coughing up, he had white nodules that come and go. Now these white nodules seem to be spreading to my other discus :( . I managed to capture some good photos of a nodule that appeared overnight on one of them - see attached photos. At the base of the nodule it looks red and almost inflammed.

I have a 500 litre tank and I am doing 100 litre changes each day. My partner is suggesting we remove all substrate, plants and background to get a more controlled environment.

Water parameters are as follows
27 degrees
pH - 6.8
Nitrate - 0ppm
Ammonia - between 0 and 0.25ppm
Nitrate - 0ppm

Does anyone have a clue what this might be??

[Decapper]

See this alot lately. Can't seem to find any real answer for ya

[ILLUSN]

It's not anchor worm is it?

its looks a little too small but that matches the symptoms. have you tried a wormer like prazi?

can you bring your ph down a little to say 5.8-6.0 that will take care of your trace levels of ammonia and make it harder for things (not discus) to breed.

removing all your gravel and plants might not be such a bad idea.

[n.hanke]

I am pretty sure one of my other fish had an anchor worm a while back which left a rather big scar. It is completely healed and Promethyasul seemed to helpher recover. She was stressed at the time with fry.

These nodules however, seem to move around the body. They remind me of a jack in the box. They'll pop up in one spot by morning and be gone by midday only to reappear somewhere else the next morning. Weird stuff!!!

I'll lower the pH and strip the tank completely. I'll try salt and if that doesn't help I think i'll give Melafix a go.

Keep you updated....

[BigDaddyAdo]

Melafix? I wouldn't bother unless your goal os to make the tank smell pretty. ;)

See if they disappear next time you worm them.

[n.hanke]

Okay, i'll give melafix a miss then....

I woke up this morning to find around 4 nodules/tubes hanging out of the big male. I got some pictures that I attached. They don't last long and seem to retreat back into the body or just die after a few hours. They are really weird. He still eats which is good to see and he isn't coughing up all that white stuff any more. The twitching attacks appear to have subsided also.

I have removed everything from the tank. Lights are off, trying to get temp to 30 degrees, hovering at 29 at the moment. 200 litre water change every second day (it's a 500 litre tank). Dosing them with aquarium salt.

I have already treated the tank twice with Kusuri. I have AquaMaster fluke and tapeworm tabs that I could try???

[Decapper]

I had them on some fish I just bought recently. Went away as you said. Did not notice them moving. Could it be mucus?

Whats the white bits on the bottom of your tank?

[n.hanke]

Good question..... it must be white poo! Some of the fish have worms I presume. Even after two doses of Kusuri. Might have to give them a dose of Prazi.

[scott bowler]

n.hanke
if you have been giving these fish so many meds it might be time to give them a break for a few weeks and get the water right .Get the temp up , do a few water changes before you treat them again. it might be better to get a extra air pump and aerate the water a little more .just give the salt another try . see how that goes

[n.hanke]

Okay, point taken...

[Decapper]

They do look a little thin from photo.. would need a few more shot to be sure... Front on would be best

[n.hanke]

Looks like stirpping the tank to bare basics, turning off the light, cranking up temp to 30 degrees, dosing them on salt (one and half recommended dosage of aquarium salt) with regular water changes (every second day) got rid of the nasty nodules.

They have even started breeding again :)

[mistakes r crucial]

I realise this is a pretty old thread but I've only just come across it and it's an interesting topic.

We didn't say too much at the time because it never seemed to do any harm to the fish or their breeding and they came and went but we used to get these quite regularly when keeping heaps of adults and sub adults.

Strange thing was we never used to see them on a red based fish and rarely on blues. It was the Web Leopards & other Snake Skins that used to get them most regularly and anything PB based would be the next one in line.

Never worked it out, always looked like fat globules to me and when I asked our vet she didn't know either although she never saw one in the flesh.

We tried salt and parasite meds at times but when that had no affect whatsoever we came to the conclusion it was just one more thing we don't know much about yet. They come they go.

[TheFish]

Sorry to bring up and old thread.

Got my first discus yesterday. One of them appears to have the exact same white nodules as in the macro picture above. Did we come to a conclusion of whether or not this is harmful?

The nodules come and go throughout the day, and were not there yesterday when I picked up the fish. Sometimes they are visible, sometimes the are not. There are at most 5 nodules, sort of like a clear mucus like 2mm 'fishing'-like line, with a white spot on the very end like a head. The photo above is identical to my problem.

Fish otherwise seem completely healthy, and unbothered. Alert, actively feeding, not shy at all, normal poo etc.

In coming weeks i'm planning to worm and treat for flukes.

Cheers for any help/peace of mind!

[needspeed73]

Have you done the worm and Fluke treatement, im curious to see if it fixed the spots??
Thanks

[TheFish]

The spots seemed to only be there for the first 2-3 days after introducing to quarantine. Never saw them again.

I have treated for flukes and wormed and never seen them again.

They did not seem to bother the fish at all, i'm inclined to think it wasn't a parasite, maybe more mucus glands or something, but who knows..

[needspeed73]

Im treating my community tank tonight. Ill see what happens.
Thanks
Ian

[n.hanke]

I should also mention that I used a UV sterilizer which may have zapped whatever it was out of existence? Haven't had a problem with these nodules since late 2011.