What a wild ride. I took home some black neons(wild caught) from the LFS in March, and noticed after a few weeks that a couple started developing small, white masses (~1-2mm) on different parts of their body. I've kept black neons for years without this problem, so I went back to the LFS out of curiosity and saw that the rest of the neons had one or more of these spots and were marked NFS. The attendant said they were likely benign tumors, but they wouldn't be selling any more fish from this tank and they'd end up culled or added to plant tanks. I'm not one to ask for refunds – rather, I offered to take some home as a volunteer fish hospice.
Over the next 5 months, most of the "bumpy" tetras would decline and be euthanized, but a decent number actually recovered (for some, the mass would "pop" overnight and I'd put them in a hospital tank for a few days while the wound healed). The masses never spread to any of my healthy tetras nor to any of my other fish, so I chalked it up to a genetic defect.
For the last few months, only one tetra with a single mass remained (with around 8 normal/healed tankmates). I've been waiting for it to decline/recover, but there have been no changes exept that always looked like it was about to pop. So, cut to today, I did what any sane person would do and performed minor surgery. With a sterile blade and a gentile restraint in a soft net, and the deed was done.
I was not prepared, guys.
It was a damn parasite the whole time???
I let my fish live with these little shits in their little fish bodies and never once thought to investigate. Now I know better.
Fishy is now in recovery and is still unbothered. Love these guys
Posted by bellabelleell