what is it????

[rey420]

okay her it is. ive had my gar for about 8 months now and i noticed a growth on his tail at around three months. it got bigger as it grew. now heres the wierd part, i walked into my room on night and noticed one of my bichirs dead. the thing on the gars tail looked mangled. so i finally QT it. he is in a 40 breeder and i dosed it with mela and pima. looks like the growth is somewhat healing. he has been in it 5 days now, no carbon in the filter, 83 degrees, & almond leaves, no WC. i feed him b4 QT but now he wont eat. where should i go after a WC?

 

[xander]

do you have a pleco in tthe tank? if not then it should be an infection of some sort. best wait for solomon to come in. also try and clear out the mela and pimafix

 

[rey420]

here's my poor endli...RIP thats an 8 in net for comparision

and more pics of the thing b4 it happened

 

[E_americanus]

looks like a bad complication of lymphocystis/bacterial infection. i would remove the prochilodus from the gar's tank as well...they are known slime suckers just like plecos and probably only make this current condition worse.

if you still have the gar isolated, just work with it in the Qt tank. the treatment for lymphocystis is just massive frequent water changes, along with some salt and warmer temps. i would suggest doing a 50% water change every day or every other day for a week or two, or at least until the condition starts to heal (so at least for a week). add 1 tbsp of salt per 20g of tank water, and keep the temp around 82-83F (like you apparently are doing). don't use melafix or pimafix. good luck, and keep us posted--
--solomon

 

[rey420]

looks like the pink stuff is going away. i did a 50% WC and put the carbon back in. added salt and temp is at 82.

 

[Gator]

Might as well change the carbon as well because once its "used up" it will start releasing what its trapped back into the water.

 

[rey420]

the carbon was actually new, i took it out of the filter b4 dosing the tank. thankfully my breeding project was finished the day b4 this happened.