Longnose Butterfly's Gross Bump

[AuntKaren]

I think our Longnose Butterfly has a problem. Last night he was perfectly normal looking. This morning he has a large ugly boil-like lump on his right side beneath his eye. It looks reddish sometimes but the pictures I've (hopefully) included don't seem to show the redness. He's very active and is eating as he normally does.

He is in a 180 Gallon reef tank. (Forgive me for this but) the salinity, alk, pH, nitrates, nitrites, calcium and ammonia levels are all well within normal range and have been each week for the past year. We test weekly and do waterchanges weekly using ro/di water for the change.

There are about 190 lbs of Live Rock, 3 - 4 inches of live sand the regular clean up crew of snails and hermit crabs with 2 serpent stars, a sea cucumber?? 2 mithrax crabs and a lonely peppermint shrimp. I think that's it.

He has been in the tank for 1-1/2 years and is housed with 3 chromis, 3 pj cardinals, 2 false percula clowns, a sixline wrasse and a pink barred shrimp gobie. The latest addition to the tank was the transfer of the gobie from our nano tank which was in good health (the whole tank). The latest "outside" addition is the 6 line wrasse which was added 4 months ago. All fishes are healthy and active.

None of the other fish in the tank are showing signs of what is happening to the butterfly.

So..... Can anyone give me some idea of what is happening to this fish and what can be done to help?

I will submit the pictures when the stupid manage attachments button works!

[AuntKaren]

and here they are!

[dberrong]

Wish I could help. I've never seen anything like that. I hope it goes away for you.

[AuntKaren]

The first pictures were taken at 11 a.m. this morning. This picture was taken at 7:45 p.m. this evening. It's getting worse and I don't know how to help.

HELP!!

[dberrong]

http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/disease.html

I found this website for you, but I couldn't seem to find this exact problem. I thought you may be able to identify what you have there better than I can. Good luck.

[AuntKaren]

Thanks Dberrong.

I went to the site and also couldn't find the problem but bookmarked the site as it's really helpful! I've emailed Melev hoping he might have some source I could use. I'll keep posted in this thread what happens. Not enough people follow through in their posts and you're always left wondering......

[Whoyah]

It sounds more like a wound then a disease to me. I would just try keeping all the fish as healthy as possible and the water quality stable. You might try soaking the fishes food in Selcon just to give them a llitle extra boost.

[AuntKaren]

Whoyah what is Selcon? Is it a garlic supplement or something? I've been soaking his food in fresh finely minced garlic. (Hubby is jealous LOL)

The longnose (aka Dagwood) is eating like a horse and scooting around the tank constantly as he usually does. The sore (for lack of a better word) has eased back in the swelling and now looks like a red bumpy "black eye". It's frustrating not knowing what it is and not knowing what to do to help. Arrrrrrrgh!

All y'alls comments have been helpful - I'm not complaining about the advice at all. Keep it coming til we find something... anything to resolve this poor fishes ailment!

[Whoyah]

Glad to hear the butterfly is doing well. Here is a link for Selcon.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...fm?pcatid=5009

[AuntKaren]

I thought I'd just let y'all know that the butterfly is doing just fine. The bump changed to a reddish bumpy arc under his eye & cheek and the swelling slowly went down. He's nearly back to normal now. What I did was give him extra garlicky food. I have NO clue what happened to him but at least he's surviving.

Thanks for your help it's nice to have somewhere to holler for help!