Black skirt tetra has mystery black lip

[humblefishguy]

BLACK SKIRT TETRA HAS MYSTERY BLACK LIP

Hi. I have a 60 gallon tank that has been running for about a year. The water parameters are all nominal. It has some bamboo, wisteria and other live plants. It has:
1 Pleco
2 spotted cory's
2 zebra loaches (snail control LOL)
5 glow tetras
5 neon tetras
3 zebra danios
4 adult guppies
and 3 black skirt tetras
A little heavy but all of the fish seem healthy.

However the biggest black skirt has a big black lump on his lower lip and it seems to be getting bigger. He still eats and swims fine. So is this normal or does anyone know what it is? Thanks for any help!!!

 

[i3k]

maybe a little domestic violence?

does the lump looks like it's growing? like a tumor of some kind?

 

[Blueiz]

One of mine has that too, and has been like that for about a year. They are about 3 years old. I don't know what it is, but it doesn't seem to bother the fish.

 

[humblefishguy]

i3k, No I don't think it's domestic violence, He's far and away the biggest one.

Blueiz, It doesn't seem to bother mine either. Did it eventually stop growing on yours?

 

[Blueiz]

It doesn't look like it has grown much , if any, recently. I have to look really close at mine to see where it's mouth is opening though..lol. This same one of mine is also missing a gill plate on it's left side, has been that way since I got him about 3 years ago. After reading this thread I went and looked really close at all of them, I have 11, and this is the only one with it.

 

[Blueiz]

Here's a picture of mine.

 

[sumpnfishy]

I used to have a lot of black skirt tetras in my 95 gal community tank. Then one day I noticed one with the black lip. The black grew larger and finally he died. Over the next few months, one my one they all got that and eventually died. No other fish had any problems so I figured this was some disease that only affected the black tetras. I hope someone knows what it really is as I've been reluctant to buy any more since then (I probably had around 8 or 9 at the time).

 

[wheelaussie]

Was a solution found for this 'black attack'. I've got the same problem now. My LFS has no idea so I've just started using Melafix.
I would strongly suggest you isolated the affected fish. I had with one a growth on its lip now I've got 8 black widows with the mystery 'black stuff'. They are in a tank full of different tetras but I don't see any point in isolating them now as 1 coloured tetra is showing signs of a black growth on his nose. I'm trying Melafix and will add Permafix at the end of the week if there is no change. After that, I'll try a suphur based white spot cure and after that ....................... heaven knows.
PS My affected black widows look exactly like the ones in your pics.