Fish Health - Lymphocystis

Around May 2007 I noticed a smooth, rounded & slightly raised lump approx 5mm x 3mm appeared on Apricot, my 5 year old male Comet. On his left-hand side mid-way between the lateral line & dorsal fin. Firstly I thought it just the result of an over-zealous chasing session but after several days it showed no sign of going down. I was concerned, especially as I couldn't positively identify it because it didn't particularly match any of the diagnostics on any site or book I looked at. It wasn't roughly shaped or discoloured, it didn't have any pus, discharge or fungus, no parasite attached. When I felt it, it didn't feel any different than the rest of him-not overly squishy & no hard lump under the surface & the scales were not pineconed & merely followed the contour of the swelling. He was not acting any different & my examining the lump didn't appear to cause him any undue stress-it was a complete mystery to me.

A local vet who knew a little about Koi[close enough!] visited & observed Apricot. His opinion was the lump was benign & would either disappear as quickly as it appeared or remain inactive but as a precaution he took a slide sample & after microscopic study found nothing out of the ordinary to report-all the cells looked normal & healthy, nothing cancerous, parasitic or bacterial. I then consulted my good friend in Canada & we proceeded as follows:

He suggested as an extra precaution it would be advisable to aggressively treat the lump, not only with medicated food but also by direct 'topical' application of Potassium Peroxide solution. At first I isolated him in a 'tub-to-tub' hospital situation but after a couple of days we had ascertained there was no danger of any infection so he went back to the main tank with his buddies.

The course of Medi-Gold was 2 weeks followed by 2 weeks of Jump Start. During this time every other day I would topically apply the PP to the spot-my method was to net him underwater & bring him out of the tank in a small, shallow dish so he was never actually out of water. Once the dish was safely on the floor I could easily hold him gently but firmly with his head remaining underwater-then I would quickly dry the spot & apply the PP with a cotton bud,working it under the scales in the affected area with a toothpick, then back into the tank. Working fast & methodically I got this whole procedure down to around a minute, then he was happily swimming around with a bright purple blob on his side!

I carried on for the first week doing this every 2 days, the second week just 2 or 3 applications then left off for the remaining 2 weeks while the meds took effect.

After the treatment the lump went into remission & was flat again but came back up after a few weeks so I repeated the above procedure. When it came back up a third time I had managed to get better pictures of the area for my friend in Canada & so we could positively identified it as Lymphocystis & this time I was advised to actually scrape away the scales in the affected area.

Quite by chance during the Summer Apricot had changed colour from all over orange to all over silver-very useful because the soft Lymphocycstis scab was orange & very hard to discern on an orange fish but very easy to see on a silver one! In fact I think all the times previously I had simply been covering the scab with the PP & the meds had put the swelling into remission rather than eliminating it.

During the second PP treatment the scales around the affected area became bleached although the scab remained orange.

By this time Apricot was quite happy for me to haul him out of the tank as we had a rapport, he knew I helping him even though it must have seemed strange & I made sure I kept talking to him during each treatment to reassure him.

Using a new, curved scalpel blade at approx 90 degrees to his side I very carefully scraped the entire affected area, removing several scales that were covered in the orange scab until healthy white/silver skin was revealed.

Once I was sure I had it all I dabbed the area dry applied a liberal coating of Bio Bandage so this time he had a blue blob instead of the purple one!

It's now been over 3 months since the treatment & although the scales will never regrow on the patch those at the edges have slightly grown over the bare area & it's hardly noticeable as his skin & scales are exactly the same colour-just his skin is matt while his scales are shiny so only in certain lights & even the bare patch has the diamond pattern of the missing scales so his good looks are preserved.

To date [Feb 2008] there has been no trace of any recurrence & the area remains clear & absolutely flat & Apricot is, as usual full of beans-he's a very special fish!