What's this on my Gar's back?

[E_americanus]

gars with tumors are quite uncommon, but where it appears on your fish, it doesn't seem like it would cause much harm (at least ostensibly). for now, the monitoring and good water quality/increased temp shouldn't hurt - and if it responds to this we will be able to determine further action. if it doesn't change, but doesn't seem to harm the gar, then i would just leave it alone. removing said tumor may be possible, but can also leave the fish open to infection (which easily happens to gars if their armor is breached as such a removal may do).--
--solomon

 

[J.Lake]

I agree id let it be unless it becomes a real burden to the fish. Good luck, gars rule

 

[mshill90]

I have a koi that has lympo.. I scraped it off, he was good for a while, but then it came back.. doesn't bother him though. Just makes him look funny. It did go away with warmer water during the summer months.

 

[Piscine]

BUMP

 

[Piscine]

Did surgery over the weekend. So far, so good.

 

[KNH]

Did you use clove oil to sedate him? I'm afraid the tumor on mine is too deep and will return if I try to remove it. Yours didn't appear as severe so hopefully it works for you.

 

[E_americanus]

Did you use clove oil to sedate him? I'm afraid the tumor on mine is too deep and will return if I try to remove it. Yours didn't appear as severe so hopefully it works for you.

it's generally inadvisable to use clove oil for surgery if you haven't used it before for general purposes (transport, anesthetic, etc)...can definitely wreak havoc on gars in the wrong doses. for a surgery as minimal as for that fish, i would have just covered its head with a wet towel and used another towel to brace the body. much less physiologically stressful to the fish.

either way, hope the fish is doing fine--
--solomon

 

[Piscine]

Well, after I went out and bought some of these,

I gently held him by his "neck" with one glove and got my g/f to hold the rest of his body with the other glove. This was done right at the water's surface, in the aquarium. For the first 10 seconds or so he tried to fight, but he calmed right down after the brief struggle.

If I have to do this again, I will be using tricaine methanesulfonate (finquel) to sedate to avoid any injury to my gar. I think fear played a role in his being so still after the fight, but I may not be so lucky next time.

 

[catman]

My gar has a growth like that also but mine also has the spots on his fins. I bumped the temp up and am waiting it out because it is not affecting at all.