Mandarin Dragonette Gill Hole Growth

[Whitecoat]

Hello,

I have a problem it seems and my skills at research are failing me. I found one other thread on this forum with a similar title but no real resolution so I figured I should ask.

My Mandarin Dragonettehas an odd growth coming from her left side gill hole, or I would assume it is a gill hole as the other side is clear and pumps water through. Last night my wife informed me that the Dragonette was picking at the top of the water and I thought nothing of it as I had just fed some "Coral Candy" which we are lucky enough to have the picky fish actually eat to suppliment the natural pods in the tank. However, today I noticed the odd growth as the fish was lounging on the bottom of the tank.

Lickily everyone else in the habitat seems fine, and the Dragonette seems to be bothered only by not being able to pump the water through the gill, as she is still able to dart around the tank and was a pain to catch.

Currently we are on the last week of a course of Reefluxto fight an ongoing battle with bryopsis (sp.), the thick green grass which likes to take over tanks.

I have attached pictures and possibly a video, if I can get that to work, and any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. The silly fish is my wife's favourite inhabitant and I would be heartbroken if it passed.

Thanks in advance.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello,

I have a problem it seems and my skills at research are failing me. I found one other thread on this forum with a similar title but no real resolution so I figured I should ask.

My Mandarin Dragonettehas an odd growth coming from her left side gill hole, or I would assume it is a gill hole as the other side is clear and pumps water through. Last night my wife informed me that the Dragonette was picking at the top of the water and I thought nothing of it as I had just fed some "Coral Candy" which we are lucky enough to have the picky fish actually eat to suppliment the natural pods in the tank. However, today I noticed the odd growth as the fish was lounging on the bottom of the tank.

Lickily everyone else in the habitat seems fine, and the Dragonette seems to be bothered only by not being able to pump the water through the gill, as she is still able to dart around the tank and was a pain to catch.

Currently we are on the last week of a course of Reefluxto fight an ongoing battle with bryopsis (sp.), the thick green grass which likes to take over tanks.

I have attached pictures and possibly a video, if I can get that to work, and any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. The silly fish is my wife's favourite inhabitant and I would be heartbroken if it passed.

Thanks in advance.

This looks like a parasitic Isopod from the best view I can give it and one thing you can do to get it off (if it is) is to give the fish a 4-5 minute freshwater dip and see if what im suspecting dislodges.

@Jay Hemdal - your thoughts?

 

[Whitecoat]

This looks like a parasitic Isopod from the best view I can give it and one thing you can do to get it off (if it is) is to give the fish a 4-5 minute freshwater dip and see if what im suspecting dislodges.

@Jay Hemdal - your thoughts?

Most interesting and thanks for the quick reply!

It is quite wedged in there truth be told and the best description which I can offer is that while translucent it is firm to the touch and pulses in and out with her respiration cycle. It's akin to a bubble of glue almost.

At first I thought of an obstruction of some kind as I had a gold fish years back that liked to eat stones, however it is more fleshy than anything in the tank.

Being that these fish have odd little gill holes rather than plates, would the isopod if it were one, fall out with the dip or would I be served extricating it from the gill area?

I will admit that this may not be a "new" development and it could have been growing for some time similar to an abscess or a goiter of some kind. With how spooky she is and how little we see of her, spotting something almost clear in her small gill hole is rather difficult. Even as we discuss this now, I thought it had disappeared for a moment while spotting her with a flashlight to check up on how she is faring.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hello,

I have a problem it seems and my skills at research are failing me. I found one other thread on this forum with a similar title but no real resolution so I figured I should ask.

My Mandarin Dragonettehas an odd growth coming from her left side gill hole, or I would assume it is a gill hole as the other side is clear and pumps water through. Last night my wife informed me that the Dragonette was picking at the top of the water and I thought nothing of it as I had just fed some "Coral Candy" which we are lucky enough to have the picky fish actually eat to suppliment the natural pods in the tank. However, today I noticed the odd growth as the fish was lounging on the bottom of the tank.

Lickily everyone else in the habitat seems fine, and the Dragonette seems to be bothered only by not being able to pump the water through the gill, as she is still able to dart around the tank and was a pain to catch.

Currently we are on the last week of a course of Reefluxto fight an ongoing battle with bryopsis (sp.), the thick green grass which likes to take over tanks.

I have attached pictures and possibly a video, if I can get that to work, and any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. The silly fish is my wife's favourite inhabitant and I would be heartbroken if it passed.

Thanks in advance.

That is weird looking! If it is an isopod, you will be able to see body segments called sclerites… think the bands on a rolly Polly / pill bug.
Jay

 

[Whitecoat]

That is weird looking! If it is an isopod, you will be able to see body segments called sclerites… think the bands on a rolly Polly / pill bug.
Jay

That is what I was thinking as well. When I looked closely it was simply a bubble like structure (similar to a super glue bubble in salt water) and when I attempted to express it, there were some very small white secretions from around the outside edges where it would meet her gill hole sides. It was rather difficult as the Mandarin is quite the slimy little ball of snot, and I was not pressing very hard.

I have some very fine tweezers and a scalpel, if I were to sterilize them, and possibly lance the bubble like structure would that be a bad idea? I will do the fresh water dip as it seems fairly benign to the animal and it might help the situation as well. But would prodding at it, lancing it, or tugging on it be a bad idea? I really don't want to cause the fish any undue stress or damage.

Thanks so much.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

My mandarin has had numerous bubble like growths and still not found reason for them.im sorry and apologies my pictures are dated / posted backwards

In regards to my mandarin I attempted to find out as much info as possible and found 'null'
So I'm following

 

[Jay Hemdal]

That is what I was thinking as well. When I looked closely it was simply a bubble like structure (similar to a super glue bubble in salt water) and when I attempted to express it, there were some very small white secretions from around the outside edges where it would meet her gill hole sides. It was rather difficult as the Mandarin is quite the slimy little ball of snot, and I was not pressing very hard.

I have some very fine tweezers and a scalpel, if I were to sterilize them, and possibly lance the bubble like structure would that be a bad idea? I will do the fresh water dip as it seems fairly benign to the animal and it might help the situation as well. But would prodding at it, lancing it, or tugging on it be a bad idea? I really don't want to cause the fish any undue stress or damage.

Thanks so much.

I’ve never seen one on a mandarin, but it looks like a microsporidian cyst. If so, cutting it open might spread it. There is no treatment for these, but they are fairly host specific and won’t infect different fish.
That said - I can’t diagnose microsporidians for sure without a powerful microscope.

Jay

 

[Rick's Reviews]

My mandarin/ bubble/ wierd growth ejected some puss and was left with scar tissue.
it appeared like a big boil/ bump under skin then after ejection/ it burst through the skin then after small white fluid pierced the skin... Only tiny amount.
The skin receded and healed quickly

(My experience with wierd mandarin bubbles)

 

[Whitecoat]

I want to thank everyone here for all the information and shared experiences! I truly do appreciate all the help.

I’ve never seen one on a mandarin, but it looks like a microsporidian cyst. If so, cutting it open might spread it. There is no treatment for these, but they are fairly host specific and won’t infect different fish.
That said - I can’t diagnose microsporidians for sure without a powerful microscope.

Jay

Jay, if only I still had access to my old labs I would more than happily prepare a slide and place it under a microscope for you. Alas, I am at the moment in between access to high power microscope so I must apologize. Along with that I do appreciate your direction but I have gone against it. Please don't hold it against me.

Since the cyst was interfering with her breathing, I scooped her from the tank and in a separate work space I manually expressed her gill, pouch?, they are rather odd animals. There were no segments and it was indeed a cyst of some kind. As I pressed a bit further, a thick white substance came out around the cyst again. Teasing it out with fine dissection tweezers caused the cyst to rupture and a thicker than water, clear, liquid poured out. The membrane of the cyst seemed to completely disappear and she puffed out the white substance into the workspace water. I then gave her a three to four minute fresh water bath before taking her and placing her back into her home.

My assumption is that, if it was anything harmful such as microsporidia or the like, that washing her off in RO water after lancing it would help, at least lessen, the impact thereof. I was more concerned about her breathing and being able to get oxygen from the water as it was completely occluding her gill hole.

For the moment she does not seem worse for the wear and went back to her usual haunts and hiding places seeming to breath much easier.

I will keep everyone updated here as to her progress or if it pops up again, and any further help or inklings are very, very welcome and appreciated.

Thank you all again!

 

[Whitecoat]

As an update to Miss Dratini, the Dragonet's saga. After leaving her be for a time she went back to her usual resting place. However it would seem that she has lost a fair bit of colour in some places and seems a bit dull. I am surmising that it would be from all the stress and the fresh water dip. I have scooped her up and placed her in a hang on the side box with free flowing water openings which she can not fit through. I have provided her a hiding place and as luck would have it my lighting system is on the new moon so it is quite dim.

I hope she recovers, I will admit she has a special place in our hearts and my wife is a bit torn up about this. The holding area is for the dual purpose of observation and if she passes I don't have to rip apart the tank to find the body.

Thanks again and I will keep with the updates. Perhaps I should have listened to those with more experience and left well enough alone but she just seemed so uncomfortable with it blocking her entire gill hole.

 

[Whitecoat]

Final update it would see, and a good note to boot! Miss Dratini seems to have made a full recovery. She is swimming about her usual spots, hunting, eating, and scurrying away from us as she seems to have learned that humans mean being captured and prodded. Truth be told, the colour change is apparently something which Mandarins do in the evenings. A fact which I did not know up until I was searching about it at two in the morning.

Again, thank you everyone for all the help and experiences, it is truly appreciated.