whats happening???

[killyah]

two days ago my lionfish was doing fine. now he's still ok (acting normal, eating,swimming around) but i dont know whats happening to his face!! dont laugh it looks like he's growing a nose or something!! hard to explain. but i got a couple of pics, see for urself and pls tell me what this is??

 

[killyah]

secon pic.....

 

[killyah]

thx Terry for the fast reply! first thing in the morning i'll be getting nitrofurazone, if the lfs dont have it then i'll get Maracyn-Two . and yes i do have a 29 gal Q/T cycled . alright im ganna move the lion to the 29gal now and move the damsels out. i'll keep you updated.

 

[phil1964]

I had a large lion like that ears ago, about 6 years old.
His face started to turn white like that, also part of his head.
I think it was old age because he died shortly after while I was out of town. When big fish like that die they stink BAD

 

[fmarini]

Hey terry:
Thanks for the notification. Since you claim the lion is doing fine (i.e., acting normally and eating) whatever the situation is isn't immediately acute.
four things come to mind.
1) a injury such as trauma or a burn w/ hyperplasia
2) fungal infection
3) HLLE disease
4) cancer
do you have an exposed heater in the tank? have you seen him fighting w/ anyone or notice him striking at rockwork? do you have an anemone in the tank or any stinging animal?
I think Terry is onto something here. The rapid growth suggests tissue damage. However i can't tell from the photo if the whitish discoloration is in fact discoloration or new tissue growth growing over the damaged area.
If hyperplasia is infact caused by trauma then short of plastic surgery, i would follow Terry's recommendation for antibiotic therapy. If the tissue is open then controlling bacteria will be a major concern.
Can you provide a better rundown of what the area looks like, some form of texture and coloration. Also any mitigating circumstances that has occured recently.
what have you been feeding this creature? how much , how often and did you notice that this discolotation is occuring along w/ pitting or any other body changes.
As an aside and i think this is a vary rare event cancer or a cancerous growth may occur, due to a number of factors (such as viral infection, repeated trauma, etc)-The very nature of cancer is runaway cell propagation. Cancerous cells grow and multiply out of control. However these events in fish are rare.
Your fish appears to be youngish as older lions tend to have less sharp banding, so cancer would be my last differential.
frank

 

[killyah]

hi FMarini , i'll try and answer ur question to the best i can. i had the lion now for more then 1 year he's in the tank with a humma humma trigger thats been there just as long. lion is 8 1/2 inches and the trigger 4 inches, there in a 125gal tank. they get along great (no fighting or anything). i have my heater in the sump, never seen him strike at any rocks, no anemone in tank and no stinging animal, no changes to the tank since setup. description of the face, the texture is smooth and color is white, the bump looks like bone or cartilage. just finish taking a better look at it and it looks like it is trauma, the nose part that i see looks like a brake and the discoloration on the mouth is not discoloration but a gap like lock jaw or when they yawn. maybe the impact caused mouth to stay a bit open..the only discoloration is his nose part skin is rubbed off. im not 100% on this but thats the way it looks when i look at the lion (i can be wrong tho). but if it is a brake how can it still eat? i feed them every second day, i give them frozen brine,mysis,krill,squid,scallop,silver side,clams,black tiger shrimp, crab, in rotation. i feed them till there belly has a small bump (not huge bump) or till they had enuff , which ever come first.
water conditions ,
water change 10% every week
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 10
calcium - 400
PH - 8.3
water temp 80
right now im treating him with nitrofurazone just like Terry posted.
like i said he's face was normal 3 days ago and now he has this thing on it. i hope the info i provided will help .