Strang Lump on Tail Fin

[dsmike]

Has anyone ever seen anything like this before. It's a lump on the tail fin of a Platinum Tiger Barb. I've scoured the internet trying to find out what it is. I'm pretty sure it's not a parasite. Its kind of like a mole, just red. No puss, no white film, no other problems like this, with him or any other fish.

My bio wheel stopped spinning over the weekend (probably after I cleaned the cartridge and media) and I didn't notice it until last night. I fixed the problem and discovered my ammonia had spiked to 2.0 PPM! I conducted a 25% water change last night and a 50% water change today.

I'm wondering if this could be an ammonia burn. My fish all had some redness around their gills, obviously stressed from the high ammonia.

I didn't want him to possibly infect the other fish so I grabbed a cheap 10G kit, (PetSmart has them on sale for 25 bones) and gravel. I rinsed the gravel in tank water. Put in the gravel, used a couple of gallons from 30G fish tank,
used a Large cave decoration from the 30 G, put one of the filter cartridges from the 30G in the tank, filled it up the rest of the with aged, treated water I keep ready for water changes, dosed with a small bottle of TSS. Add 2 TBS of Aquarium salt. Placed a heater and thermometer, added Tumor Boy and slowly raised the temp from 78 to 80.

Initial readings from that tank are .25 ammonia /0 nitrites /5 nitrates
I know the quarantine tank should have been cycled, but it'll be easier for me to conduct a bunch of water changes and control that environment, while the 30G fixes itself.

The 30G is at .5 ammonia/0 nitrites/ 10 nitrates now. I'll change another 12 gallons on thursday (I have the water treated and aging tonight and tommorow)

 

[dkpate]

It might just be some sort of ulcer, and I am not too sure how to treat. Sorry I couldn't be more help, hopefully someone else comes along who knows more!

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Here's a link to a diagnostic page that should be helpful: Fish Disease and Treatment

Could be this, but you should double check to be sure:

Tail Rot & Fin Rot
Symptoms: Disintegrating fins that may be reduced to stumps, exposed fin rays, blood on edges of fins, reddened areas at base of fins, skin ulcers with gray or red margins, cloudy eyes.

Tail and fin rot appears to be a bacterial infection of the tail and/or fins and may be caused by generally poor conditions, bully, or fin nipping tankmates. If aquarium conditions are not good an infection can be caused from a simple injury to the fins/tail. Tuberculosis can lead to tail and fin rot. Basically, the tail and/or fins become frayed or lose color. Over time the affected area slowly breaks down.
First, attempt to ascertain the cause. Then treat accordingly. Also, treat the water or fish with antibiotics. If added to the water, use 20 - 30 mg per liter. If the fish is to be treated add an antibiotic to the food. With flake food, use about 1% of antibiotic and carefully mix it in. If you keep the fish hungry they should eagerly eat the mixture before the antibiotic dissipates. Antibiotics usually come in 250 mg capsules. If added to 25 grams of flake food, one capsule should be enough to treat dozens of fish. A good antibiotic is chloromycetin (chloramphenicol) or tetracycline. If you feed your fish frozen foods or chopped foods, try to use the same ratio with mixing. As a last resort add at most 10 mg per liter of water. Also, if unkempt conditions are the suspected cause, correct it.