Lymphocystis - any advice?

[kilroy217]

Hi all,

I'm trying to nurse a sick Copperband Butterfly back to health. It has what seems to be lymphocystis. Currently, I have it in a quarantine/hospital tank. Other than the cysts, it seems to be quite healthy, surprisingly. It ate brine shrimp last night, and picked at some nori today.

So far, I have been dosing Pimafix and Melafix to hopefully just prevent any infections. Because of this, I took the carbon out. Is it better to dose these medications or to have the carbon in the tank? I will be doing a 25% water change every 3-4 days.

Have any of you nursed similarly infected fish back to health? Does anybody have any particular advice?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[marrone]

I would stop treating what you're using and just leave the fish alone. All you need to do is make sure you have good water quality and the condition will go away by itself. It's a very easy disease to cure and very really is it ever fatal.

 

[kilroy217]

So, should I put the carbon back in, then?

 

[marrone]

I would move the fish back into your main tank, as it's probably stressed out from being in such a small tank, and the main tank probably has better water conditions. This will probably help the fish recover faster, unless you have fish that are going to bother it.

 

[kilroy217]

I have been taking daily readings on the QT since putting the sick fish in there. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Sal 1.024, Temp 79, Phosphate <0.05 (detectability limit), Nitrate <15 (not the greatest, but no corals in the QT anyway). I'd say the water quality is quite good, considering. Also, with doing frequent water changes, I'm attempting to keep ahead of any nitrate or other contamination problems.

This fish was never in my display tank. I got it sick from somebody else. Hoping to nurse it back to health, rather than let it just die. I'm sorry, but I just refuse to put a sick fish into my display tank. I hope that doesn't sound to harsh, but I just can't justify the risk. It's a 20-gal QT, and the fish is no more than 1.5" long. I have some PVC pipe to act as hiding places. All things considered, this QT tank is a better option than the garbage can, which is where it was headed if I didn't take it.

Anybody else have any similar experiences with lymphocystis? Any advice?

 

[NYreefNoob]

from my understanding and i might be wrong, that will not spread to other fish, i would stop dosing anything as stated, it dosnt cure it, the cyst will have to rise nd come out. less stress = faster recovery, { like i said i dont think it spreads to other fish, but not positive }

 

[marrone]

That right it wouldn't spread to other fish, and better condition will help the fish and the cyst will eventually fall off.

As for being a sick fish, far from it. Given good water condition the fish will recover without any problems or affecting your other fish. This is not like Ich so you don't need to worry about it spreading. Also the chances that ammonia, nitrites or nitrates increase in the hospital tank are great and will only make it longer for the fish to be cure, regardless how often or how much you're changing the water.