Pond fish diseases

[Jux]

I was tempted to put this under gardening.

I have a pond which is stuffed with fish (inherited it when we bought the house, basically). A couple of years ago I notice one fish had a big lump on its' body. I rang round various agencies/vets etc, and it was decided that

a) it was the temperature of the water and when the weather got warmer the lump would go
or b) I needed some treatment or other which I duly bought and administered.

I dosed the pond again about 6m later when the lump had not gone. I did it again about 6m after that, at which point I'd finished the bottle.

Now I see that the fish in question has another lump, and the original lump has enlarged a great deal. Not only that, but another fish now has a similar lump.

There are about 15 of these fish. The disease presumably spreads slowly. I don't know what to do.

They're not lesions or ulcers are they are not open but just lumps, which the fins spread over. I can't believe the fish are happy or comfortable with them and I'd like to identify and treat them, but no one round my way seems to know anything about fish.

The most helpful person I spoke to suggested I put the fish in a tank and brought it to him (about 150miles!). Not exactly practical - and not remotely possible, either.

Does anyone know anything about this? Can anyone help me?

Can you get a pic? There are a few different things it could be. Is it just a smooth lump or does it look a bit like cauliflower? Is it a different colour to the fish or the same colour? Can you see any redness there?

Any ideas how old the fish are?

Thank you sweetnitanitro.

It is beginning to look like a cauliflower, but this has only happened in the last few weeks. It was the same colour, but has gone white now. There is no redness that I can see.

I have now got a pic on my profile - it's the best we could do. The fish is about 6 inches long, maybe a bit more.

This fish could be any age; we've lived here for 5 years and it was well established then. I have seen babies (black, and in the middle of a colour change) in the last couple of years.

The pump isn't working and I am waiting for dh to get a part. He's going tomorrow, and we can start getting the pond clear again, but it was in a much worse state when we moved in as the pump had seized long before we got there, and it was nearly 6m before we realised there was one or where the switch was.

It looks like it could be lymphocystis, there are some clearer pics on this page so maybe you'll be able to tell- Lympho pics

And some more info here (this article is better for info than the previous one-

Lympho info

If it is that then there's good news and bad news- good news is that it's not fatal, the bad news is that it is highly contagious so you'll never be able to move your fish and I wouldn't add any more (although it sounds like the fish are doing a good job of increasing their numbers anyway!).

Once you've sorted the filter out and it's running again then the water quality should improve. You could add some pond melafix to help prevent any secondary infections but I would wait until the pump is fixed because melafix is oil based so you need the extra aeration.

Other than that all you can do is keep a close eye on the fish to make sure they aren't getting worse. It's a viral infection so antibiotics won't help.

Thank you.

The second article says that the lymphocyst will run its course in about 4 weeks, but this fish has had this lump for about 2 years! Maybe it's a new slow-growing type.

I wonder whether it would be a good idea to isolate the two fish with lumps? Though it does say that stress doesn't help.

We are about to drain the pond and clean it in an attempt to improve life for the fish, frogs and plants. DH is getting the pump parts tomorrow and we'll pump the water out on Thurs am. I thought I'd leave about 6 inches in the bottom and we'd try to work with that. I doubt that anyone has ever done it and the pond was put in about 20 years ago, apparently.

That'll stress all of them out. No doubt lumps will abound in a few weeks. Oh dear.