Clown knifefish wierd lump

[Joseppe]

Good day everyone.
I brought home a clown knifefish from my LFS today. They had 3 in there, all relatively hidden away in their tanks and when the LFS guy started ruffling in the tank I noticed 2 of them had a lot of fin damage and one of them had almost none but a tiny little 'cut' in it's tailfin at the very back, but nothing too serious. I ended up taking the one with the least damage on it's fins home and as I put it in quarantine I noticed a very small little lump on it's side, then a similar lump on his other side in a similar place. I've never seen anything like this before and am really wondering what it could be and what could be done.
I also noticed a slight redness around the area where it's tail is damaged (again, after I got home with it).
So far what I've found online I'm thinking it could possibly be Ichthyosporidium. The lumps look like small cysts to me personally. I've tried feeding it but it also refused to eat.
It seems to swim normal as far as I can tell and it is able to maintain balance. However it's mostly just sitting on the bottom underneath a piece of driftwood I put in there.

As of now I don't have a picture of it as my lights are off, but I'll try to get one tomorrow when I turn them on.

My quarantine tank holds 30l (8 gallons), is kept at 25°C (77-78°F) and parameters currently are:
Ph 8.0
Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
nitrtate 15ppm

EDIT: I forgot to mention the fish's size; currently it's about 8-10cm at most (3-4 inch tops)

 

[kno4te]

Sounds like it could be the case and attributed to bad lfs water and stress. I’m sure it’ll eat in a couple of days. Just watch for any worsening. If it does a dose of paragaurd and salt sounds like it might be called for.

 

[Joseppe]

Sounds like it could be the case and attributed to bad lfs water and stress. I’m sure it’ll eat in a couple of days. Just watch for any worsening. If it does a dose of paragaurd and salt sounds like it might be called for.

I'm 110% positive my LFS does not quarantine their fish before adding them to the sales stock. I've purchased unhealthy fish there way too often. I try to have a 'keen eye' when I buy my fish there, but from time to time I'll look over some things.
Sadly it is the only LFS where I live.

On a further note about the fish; I've been observing it with the lights off and it started to explore around the tank and poke about in the gravel. I'm unsure wether it ate or not, but I put a tiny bit of tubifex worms in there and left them incase he decides to eat them overnight.
Going to siphon the gravel tomorrow just incase though.

Atleast it being a bit active and exploring around is somewhat of a good sign. We'll see what the morning brings.

 

[Joseppe]

I got a picture of it today, it's not the best picture but it does clearly show the swollen area. Not sure but it seems to have gotten slightly bigger. A similar swelling is on the other side but about half the size as the one shown in the picture.

 

[Joseppe]

So there's been a development in it's condition. The swelling shown on the picture definitely got larger. A couple hours after taking it (and this time I had something to compare) it showed to be much larger. then roughly an hour later it suddenly decreased in size drastically, but I noticed a small open wound in the center of it. That wound has gotten larger over the next 2 hours, but in the past 3 hours it seems to have gotten a bit smaller again.
The fish is reclusive with the lights off, I made it a couple caves to hide in while it stays in quarantine. But as soon as the lights go off it goes around the tank pretty often, poking around the gravel but still I'm unsure wether it's eating yet or not.

So to me, it's activity seems to be on the healthy side, nor have I noticed any abnormal breathing, It's color also got better since the picture was taken. Yet a swelling suddenly turning into an open wound is still concerning me a lot..

 

[kno4te]

Could be an infection that’s pooped open. Add a little salt 1 tsp per gallon. Keep the water clean.

 

[Joseppe]

I added the salt as soon as I noticed the wound, dissolved it in half the tank's water and then gradually flowed it back into the tank.

I've never had to deal with an open wound on a fish before though. Should I be doing daily, or every second day small/medium/big waterchanges? It's a very small system and I'm afraid I might shock the fish with a bigger change.

Last night it was very active and as far as I can tell it does seem to be improving. I checked up on the wound earlier and it appears to be smaller again. The swelling is completely gone as well. The wound went from being a pinkish-red color to a more 'faded white' right now. The white color worried me but it doesn't appear to be fungi. It actually seems to be very similar to his own coloration in some places

 

[Joseppe]

So there's been positive development;
For the past few days it's been eating very well. It ended up getting a couple more small swellings which popped open. It has 5 very small wounds that seem to be healing fast and the one bigger one that was that big swelling shown in the picture. That's almost completely gone now and I'm thinking of moving it out of quarantine soon. I'm just not sure if it's already the right time though. I would have it move in with my 15 inch fire eel and 11 inch ropefish. Tank is 430l (113gallons) dimensions: 100cm x 76cm x 60cm (roughly 40" long, 30" depth, 24" high), and currenly only has those 2 fish in it. I run an external barrel filter that circulates another 40 Gallons of water through the tank, with a pump pumping at 250gallon/h.
I'm also aware of the fire eel requiring more in the future, but considering it's at 15 inches now with only 1 (future 2 tankmates) it still gives me time before upgrading.

On a sidenote: How long would this work with those 3 fish before requiring an upgrade though? I'm guessing atleast 1year? I have a move ahead of me in 5 months (about 10hours from where I live now, so hopefully I'll be able to take all, or most of my fish with me) and plan to give them a 250gallon tank after that's all done.

Edit: Clown knifefish is 5" at most, fire eel 15" rope fish 11". (so you don't have to look through the text / previous posts for the sizes)

 

[Jacob92677]

Any update or turn out on this

 

[Fishofmind]

I got 2 clown knife last year, 3" in size and one of them has the same lump. They both eat a lot but the one with lump almost stop growing. Now the healthy one is 11" long and the one with lump(now gone) is barely 5"