New Greater Siren - Tumors or Parasites?

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Catnkit

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2011
270
1
18
Toronto
So I have a Greater Siren as a temporary house guest (he better be temporary... If I fall in love I'm screwed), and I have seen him every few months for years. He's had this unusual grey matter on his head forever, it gets slightly bigger over the years and the unusual orange cyst-looking things are kinda new to me but likely have been there, slowly appearing.

Does anyone have any idea what these could be? If they are tumors, then, well there's not much I can do about that. But if this is a parasite or a fungus I need to know, because I have another siren in another tank and I need to know how paranoid I should be.

Any info would be helpful! Ready to answer questions as detailed as I can.

 
I love big siren. But i didn't have any chance to own one.
 
looks like it would appreciate soft sand to burrow in. is the temp too high for it? I used to have an ampiuma but never a siren.
 
Sorry, Catnkit, I can't help you with your guest siren's medical issue. I can tell you from experience, though, that sirens can tear each other up. I don't think it's deliberate aggression, just indiscriminate biting when the smell of food is on the water, but the results are the same. I would strongly suggest keeping them in separate tanks, or you may see some missing limbs, shredded gills and tails, etc.

They have excellent powers of regeneration, but still...

Syddakyd - I keep soft sand in my siren tanks, but have never seen either greater or lesser sirens burrowing in it. Their habitat in the wild tends to be weed-choked with mucky organic substrate; I think sand is too dense for them. They do fine with just plants and driftwood for cover.
 
I was thinking possible fungal infection due to high temps or scratches from the gravel attempting to borrow. you are right though in the fact they would prefer "muck" but that makes viewing a little hard lol
 
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