Sick rainbow

[Morhua]

I’m having trouble diagnosing the condition this Australian rainbow is currently displaying. I was away for two days and did not notice any signs of trouble prior to leaving but noticed this last night when I got home. I removed him from the larger community tank and placed him in a cycled 5 gallon.

Background:

He was recently purchased at a LFS and showed no signs of distress. He’s been hanging out with 5 large danios and there have been no signs or aggression between it and any of the other fish in the tank. There seems to be no signs of distress or symptoms in any of the other fish (yet and I hope never).

Current signs

There is some inflammation at the base of the tail and there appears to be 3-4 white nodules present. There are no other signs of white nodules on the gills, fins or the rest of the body. The fish is not lethargic (has adjusted to the 5 gallon well) and it ate last night. It's eyes are clear.

My diagnosis

I originally thought, some sort of bacterial disease. Then I thought maybe the danios are nipping at him (and I’m just not noticing). On close inspection of the white nodules, I suspected Ich (but it doesn’t really look like Ich). I’ve researched this on the net and can’t seem to match it to anything (other than an ectoparasite) but I’m not confident in what it might be. Anyway, here a couple of pics (I think they uploaded) … any help in what this might be and how to treat it would be appreciated.

[Ehren]

It is a very cute fish, I like to keep rainbows, unfortunatly though I haven't seen anything like that as of yet. The most common thing that I have seen is scales flaking off the nose and rot on the fins. I find that they are happier with more than one rainbow in the tank, and problems seem to go away. As long as the fish is acting alright I would wait for the problem to fix itself, if It gets any worse though then I would take action. I find that little defects seem to come out as the fish ages, especially rainbows and they usually work out on their own. It might even be something as simple as it scraped itself against something. It never hurts to treat the water anyway, just to be safe.

[New to Alberta]

It could be an infection due to improper or poor water quality. Do lots of water changes and treat with Melafix. I like to do 25% daily water changes in situations like these. I have found in keeping these fish that they get infections if the Nitrates get too high or if the PH is wrong. I believe this particular type of rainbow likes a higher ph 7 or above. If this isn't the case then it's probably nodular disease (Lymphocystis). Uncurable - a bit disfiguring - and usually not too contageous unless it's spreading through a species. I find gouramis prone to this disease. I'd still use the Melafix incase of secondary infection at the site. If the area is red at all then it's probably a water irritant like previously mentioned. See below for a description of Lymphocystis;

Symptoms: Nodular white swellings (cauliflower) on fins or body.

Lymphocystis is a virus and, being a virus, affects the cells of the fish. It usually manifests itself as abnormally large white lumps (cauliflower) on the fins or other parts of the body. It can be infectious, but is usually not fatal. Unfortunately, there is no cure. Fortunately, this is a rare disease.

There are two suggested treatments. One treatment is to remove and destroy the infected fish as soon as possible. The other treatment is to simply separate the infected fish for several months and hope for remission, which usually does occur.

I have seen fish live a pretty healthy life with this disease when water conditions are kept ideal.

[New to Alberta]

It could be an infection due to improper or poor water quality. Do lots of water changes and treat with Melafix. I like to do 25% daily water changes in situations like these. I have found in keeping these fish that they get infections if the Nitrates get too high or if the PH is wrong. I believe this particular type of rainbow likes a higher ph 7 or above. If this isn't the case then it's probably nodular disease (Lymphocystis). Uncurable - a bit disfiguring - and usually not too contageous unless it's spreading through a species. I find gouramis prone to this disease. I'd still use the Melafix incase of secondary infection at the site. If the area is red at all then it's probably a water irritant like previously mentioned. See below for a description of Lymphocystis;

Symptoms: Nodular white swellings (cauliflower) on fins or body.

Lymphocystis is a virus and, being a virus, affects the cells of the fish. It usually manifests itself as abnormally large white lumps (cauliflower) on the fins or other parts of the body. It can be infectious, but is usually not fatal. Unfortunately, there is no cure. Fortunately, this is a rare disease.

There are two suggested treatments. One treatment is to remove and destroy the infected fish as soon as possible. The other treatment is to simply separate the infected fish for several months and hope for remission, which usually does occur.

I have seen fish live a pretty healthy life with this disease when water conditions are kept ideal.

[New to Alberta]

Weird- why did that post twice. How do you delete it?

[New to Alberta]

From closer inspection of your pictures it doesn't look like Lymphocystis. If the Melafix isn't strong enough for a cure I'd try Moroxy.

[EowynJane]

Is he rubbing on anything? It does look like ich to me. I wouldn't add any meds just yet, keep the water really clean and try to reduce stress. If he's still eating and not lathargic he's not that bad.

Have you ever treated Ich with heat and salt? You can slowly raise the temp of you tank up, over a few days, I believe to about 85 and this speeds up the life cycle of the ich. You can't kill it while it's in cyst form on your fish, you have to wait until the cyst bursts and they become free swiming.

While your raising the temp you're also slowly adding rock salt. Not table salt of course. Just plain old rock or aquarium salt. I buy my from the grocery store, it should be free from additives of any kind. Disolve the salt in some water and add slowly until you're up to a teaspoon of salt per gallon of water. Salt doesn't evorapate so when you do a water change only add back enough salt for how much water you took out of the tank.

A week like this is usually sufficient to kill off any ich, do some extra vacuming in both tanks as Ich lives in the gravel. Ich will also be present in your main tank (becuase it is just usually there) but most healthy fish are strong enough to fight it off which is why you're not seeing it in the other fish. The Rainbow is likely experiencing some additional stress... maybe the danio's are chasing him?