My Knife fish is growing bumps only one side under his mouth

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jeannerphillips

Aquarium Advice Newbie
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Feb 20, 2020
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I have had my knife fish since he was very small he is now over 18 inches long.He started growing bumps only in one area under his mouth on his left side no where else is this appearing but that area . He has not eaten in three weeks I dont know how he is alive with out eating. I have been over salting the tank for past few weeks so he can get his electrolytes and try to aid with the healing of what ever this is. I tried bacteria medicine it did not touch this. I will attach the pics see if I can get some help to figure out what is going on. I tried to give him to few pet stores figuring maybe they could help him but no one will take him his size is to large. I would love some advise
 

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Big fish! We’ll need a lot more information to try and sort this out! What setup is he in how long has it been set up and what are your water parameters?

What bacteria medicine did you use how much and for how long and how much salt?

Any decor in the tank that might have burned or injured him? Aggressive tankmates?

What are you trying to feed him.

Have the lumps been spreading, how long did it take them to develop?
 
my water permeters are fine I have three large tanks and I have him since a baby he is almost two years old. I only have two items in this tank one being a large cave rock for his buddy that is with him in the tank and added a fake plant yesterday which they both played with moving around for hours yesterday. It is not an injury. It started of with a few little bumps about 4 months ago but he was eating fine with it. He use to eat blood worms 5 cubes in the morning but then he stopped coming up to eat them so I had to change it out due to pollution in water if he did not eat the cubes at once . Then I moved to feeders but he is blind so he was having hard time catching them. I will retry again this weekend I have three feeders in the tank now for a month he cant catch them going to try larger feeders just a few so if he dont eat his ciclid friend will so I dont build up with them Then I moved to large pellets that float he would come up and I would hand feed him. He ate one pellet yesterday after water change that was floating for awhile but noticed he could not swallow it some of that pellet got spit back out and it was sitting so it was not totally hard so he might feel pain with this I am thinking I have not seen him eat in about a month . He use to eat six of them right from the hand . I am adding 6 or so tablespoons of aquarium salt to aide in not eating and the illness at water change I think that is what is saving him if you look at the picture his mouth is also starting to warp. The other fish in the tank is showing no illness and is fine . He is not injured from the cave rock for his buddy he sleeps behind it and I can not have much in his tank due to his size . I tried bacterial medicines thinking it was bacterial growth but it is not it the lumps continue to grow and now is affecting his shape of his mouth. the lumps are not spreading they are only on that side of his mouth his other side is fine but these lumps are continue to grow never seen anything like this. I am thinking of trying antibiotics but not sure that is going to work. It is some sort of growths but only in that area and it has not spread in 4 months just this area and the bumps are growing bigger wish I could figure this out when I put the bacterial medicine in he pants I have tried four times at one week intervals does not touch these growths I raise and breed angel fish I have no experience with knife fish even though I had him for two years I never had no issues or sickness my first time in with this
 
I think you’re unlikely to get much helpful advice if you don’t answer the questions. I’m not trying to be passive aggressive here, it’s just that we have no way of knowing what the problem could be if we don’t get through the diagnostic questions. (Ex: 6 or so tablespoons of salt is useless if we don’t know tank size; ‘bacterial meds’ ? there are dozens of commercially available meds... we don’t know which you used already for how long and what dosage.)

We’re not vets and we don’t have a tissue sample to look at under a microscope so we rely on the information you give us to look for clues.

If you could thoroughly answer the questions from my previous response and from this thread it would give us a jumping off point:

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f17/before-posting-about-unhealthy-fish-read-this-32451.html
 
I have had my knife fish since he was very small he is now over 18 inches long.He started growing bumps only in one area under his mouth on his left side no where else is this appearing but that area . He has not eaten in three weeks I dont know how he is alive with out eating. I have been over salting the tank for past few weeks so he can get his electrolytes and try to aid with the healing of what ever this is. I tried bacteria medicine it did not touch this. I will attach the pics see if I can get some help to figure out what is going on. I tried to give him to few pet stores figuring maybe they could help him but no one will take him his size is to large. I would love some advise


I thank you for help all I am back to using MelaFix now to treat him I did not try this on this infection, no idea what those lumps are but Melafixed I used to use this all the time but it was like all my fish got immune to it and stopped working..I am see changes on almost two days just dosed again early he is not hiding now stretching out his lumps on jar line I see have already changed in appearance and a layer of fungus lifting off him that I did not even realize it was there until now with the Melafix over dose on this tank with three hands full of aquarium salt to aide in healing as well as electrolytes to him ..Just sharing this adventure if anyone needs this advise I am still trying to recover him but his is what I am doing right now with him
 
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