Hmmm, I've been looking into gill's ('citing, isn't it). I can find several references to 'protruding gills' - most of them saying it could be either gill or body flukes (but these would have to be introduced from somewhere ). Or, a bacterial infection of sorts - they seem to be advising a course of anti-biotic medicines - notably Maracyn2.

However I did find THIS. Take a look at the bottom for Diagnosis and treatments (it is copy protected and won't let me paste excerpts).

If the RC is swimming and eating normally, I would be inclined to leave him be, If it was mine I would be inclined to whip him out, hold him firmly in a wet teatowel or such and use a pair of sharp scissors to snip just the lump off. As it's only on the fins, not the body, this should cause minimal suffering and will regrow in no time at all.

I'd also put your photos/vid on the Practicalfishkeeping Forum (it's easy, free and quick to register - I joined a while back), it's full of experts and advisor's - and if they don't know what the lump/gill problems are, nobody will.

BTW, Meth Blue is general copper based cure-all and it is worth a try - I would be tempted to try our old fav 'salt' as another treatment maybe 2-3 teapoons per gallon.

Let me know what happens and let me know if you want help with the PracticalFishkeeping forum thingy.

The Lump Fell Off!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At last!!!

WELL DONE!!!, I suppose it was best that it was on the fins rather than the body (as the fin may have 'grew it off')

You know what this means?

.........you can buy some more fish now.

Oh God. You're never gonna believe it. The little b****** died this morning. Well my hubby euthanised it because it went as stiff as a board and was floating upside down. After all our hard work. I'm gutted. i took him down to the sea for a burial and he floated away with the ducks in hot pursuit. I can't believe it!!

I did buy a new fish for his his old tank mate the silver shark. i bought another silver shark, bigger but skinnier and not so deep.

My old man the synodontis is in the methy blue tank now all alone and is all better. Its only an 18" tank but he's really happy so I'm leaving him there. I'll add a couple of swordtails/platties when I'm sure the tank is back to normal. i did a PH test last night and it was at 5.5 so I'll need to sort that out.

Yours,

Gutted

Ann

XXX

By the way is adding coral still the best/saftest way to adjust the PH. I don't really want to use chemicals unless I really really have to.

PS 1 and a half bottles of melafix and methy blue for sale

Awww, after all that - I wonder if it was all the stress.


They are good together.


Best get him out the methy blue - don't stress him out any further.



What Syno is it? if it's a multipunctatus - it needs to be 7.5-8.5. But even if it isn't, 5.5 is very low. If your area is very low naturally - you could change the gravel to coral sand, Coral is fairly safe for PH/buffering - but synos are very fast and tend to 'hug' rockwork, and coral can be very sharp (even crushed coral) and most Synos are scaleless.


Didn't you have a bottle of Pimafix also.

I wonder if 'The Lump' was an Alien egg pod and using the RC as a host/food. If Mr Nodaethat starts to look a bit 'odd' and starts to develop a swollen belly - call Sigourney Weaver.

Oh No. Does methy blue stress fish? I did a 50% water change today before I read your post because I did wonder. I'll look at doing another 2moro to get the tank bank to a more normal state. I have no idea what kind of syno it is. he's grey/black with very small black spots all over. His fins are short and stubby too. His wee fluffy sores are all clear now but i don't want to put him into the GT tank ever again as to be honest he is just a pest and a bully. He doesn't mind the SS's though maybe because they are not cichlid shaped? I'm gonna look at coral sand at the weekend. I'm not sure if the ph is affecting any of the fish really. I did the PH out of the fish tank the new SS came from and that was 6.5. I've had the synodontis for 10 uyears and he has always been ok. How long do they live?

I'm off to bed. knackered here LOL.

I'll PM you bout stuff.

He's one of these ..............


http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?im...3D4SP%26sa%3DN

That can happen far too often with family pets.

http://images.encyclopediadramatica....ongburster.gif

I agree. i hear rabbits are susceptible. Did you know that?

I don't know very much about rabbits at all. How was I to know they needed food.

Maybe I should have posted a thread in here.

"Do rabbits need food, also, should their legs work ?"

It would be no stupider than some of the other threads in here. Present company excepted. This is a lovely thread. I never realised fish were so complicated ( they need food too, right?) It's fascinating.

I'd get some fish tomorrow if I didn't know I'd kill them within days.

i will keep reading this thread title as "any experienced child keepers out there"

I think i may have found a solution to your fingers of death. Buy this for your new telly!!

http://www.1fish.co.uk/picsprods/virtual_fish_tank.htm

There may even be a rabbitfish there and you won't have to worry about legs. how great is that?

Hello.

Tis only me with an update.

Since the RC went to a better place I've bought a few more fish

I now have in my BIG tank...

2 large silver sharks
1 tinfoil barb
1 holy bloody green terror (love him really)

He now amuses himself by playing with a ping pong ball ha ha ha. His lump on his head is getting more and more pronounced. I am not putting any other cichlids in with him. its just too risky and not fair on the newby.

In my medium tank I now have

1 synodontis nigrita.

He's still on his own some but I'm gonna add some larger community tank fishes like gouramis and maybe an angel . He's looking stupendous and hale and hearty considering his old old age.

In my NEW (yes I bought another one) small tank I have

3 shrimps that are just growing out of their skins all the time LOL
1 peppered cory
1comet platty
1 frog. The other one died last week sadly but he was about 3/4 so he did really well.

In my biorb I have my goldfish. Two of.

And the best news is ...................................... I've persuaded hubby that cichlids are brilliant and we're gonna save up and buy a rift valley set up. I lurve malawis and look forward to having them again.

Any ways hows you? Hope you and the Mrs and the incisions are doing well.

Ann

This tank is 4 footer isn't it? - To be honest, anything you put in there that is smaller than the GT and slightly 'Cichlid-like' he will chase off, his territory is cemented. Even introducing a similar sized female GT might be dodgy. With the sharks reaching about 9 inches and the Tinfoil about a foot - and like you say, fast and not at all really Cichlid-like, they will just about fill out the tank, or is it a big 4 footer?



I have 2 adult male Platinum Angels and five youngsters that we bred as black/platinum crosses - they look like Platinums, but with orange heads.

Angels and Gouramis are nice show fish as they're colourful and nicely deep bodied.

Syno's can be very territorial sometimes though, so maybe make sure the newbies aren't too small.

BTW, for your particular Syno - their longevity is about 11 years.




Cool. Is it another Dwarf Frog (oops, that ones laying eggs ) or one of those albino clawed frogs?





Best place I'd have thought. Have they still got the 'Bogroll lid'.




WooHoo!!! - You, being a female of the species, have special powers at your disposal - Nag, plead and emotionally blackmail him regularly...







I seem to be doing fine. Although playfighting with cats and getting up sharpish I'm not doing again - Still kinda raw inside.

I have to go back to work tomorrow, Hmmm. Panda is fine and I have now converted one of our tanks to Marine and it presently houses a pair of yellow Reidi seahorses, a pair of orange Reidi seahorses, 2 Dancing shrimps, a Cleaner shrimp and 2 Turbo Snails. Panda has awalys loved them from when she was a kid. - (The Seahorses that is, not so much the snails.)

Hope all is well with you?

aw naw. Cory and platty died

Platty got sucked into the filter. (It was just a baby) I meant to put a pair of stockings around the bad bad filter but forgot.

the cory just keeled over and died. Had him a few years but its still a shock. the shrimps and frog are doing really well though. Tested the PH and its bang on 7 so i hope that's ok. The frog shed his skin last night and I found yet another shrimp skin near enough intact so i presume they like it in the new tank.


and so the saga continues.


My god you're brave going "marine". I know they are beautiful, especially seahorses, but I would be just too scared to do anything in the house LOL. I'm addicted to the smell of bleach and Mr Sheen so I dare say the marines would suffer.

Check out my "local" shop that has just moved to Tranent/Macmerry. East Lothian Aquatics. They specialize in Marine set ups. theres dozens and dozens of tanks of them.

Ann.

Enjoy your work 2moro

Yep thats my frog. Cool wee bugger it is. Especially when it plays dead LOL

My syno is about 15 so he's had a good innings. I know he's a common syno but I've never seen another one LOL. Maybe they were common in the shops 15 years ago.


The bog roll lid has now gone smart ass LOL.

Ann

getting a 7 inch plec woo hoo

Didn't the filter have a strainer on it. It must have one hell of a 'suck' on it. - The platy must have very small and not a good swimmer or ... It might have just been inquisitive and swam up there looking for food. I had a baby gold Arowana that swam up a power filter inlet.

I would say PH 7 is just about right for the frog and shrimps, as evidenced by the skin moulting.

I've read that the longevity of Cory's tend to be related to how we keep them and the species, with a specialist saying that 8 years seems to be even ok , with some of the dwarf varieties living for around three years only.

It could have been stress, remember that you initially had salt in the tank with it and Cory's aren't supposed to like salt much. I told you that I had treated my Discus tank with salt for a possible Whitespot outbreak (I couldn't use copper based meds because of the Elephant nose's ) in there, then after the next few months, (even after three 50% water changes), a few of the Cory's suddenly died for no apparent reason. In that tank was about 18 or so Cory's of different types and sizes, but only 3 or so succumbed.





I've had marine tanks before - both fish only and Inverts. They are tricky sometimes with water parameters, but then again so are some of the high strung Discus varieties. What makes marines intolerant of changes is that, in the sea the water parameters remain very much the same (below the first foot of water) all year round come rain or shine, winter or summer- therefore their environ remains steady. But for freshwater fish, the water temp, ph, hardness, pollution varies from night to day and season to season, and living in smaller bodies of water they tend to be able to tolerate nitrites/Nitrates/Ammonia/Temperature changes more easily. Marine fishes living in such huge bodies of water (oceans) will never in the wild have to live in a self-polluted water - the pollutants will either dissipate or the fishes just swim away from it.

A tight fitting lid will stop most household sprays/pongs from entering the water column (assuming you've no outside air bubbler), so I wouldn't worry about your Bleach/Mr sheen kinkiness.



Found THIS - interesting - see post number 6.



I did. The Boss was off.



Bless. get him some froggy friends - and have mini tadpoles.



True. Some fishes (like Antiques) go in and out of fashion according to what the trade see as more saleable.



Yes. Bog rolls (depending on the severity of the application) don't last very long.



Cool, what type of plec? I've got a Royal Plec in my Discus tank.

Where's he going to live?

It doesn't have a strainer on it but a pair of my stockings has sorted that. It was a teeny weeny wee thing and I think it did go up for food. I thought I had got it out in time but I never. I am a murderer. I have it on its lowest setting but its still got a mighty big suck on it!!. The tank is one of the £25 tanks from (Shhhhhh) PAH.

Not clever enought to do multi quotes yet LOL

That Arrowana is beautiful. The have one at East Lothian that is huge and just goes up and down his massive tank. Sorry you lost yours. An expensive loss was it?

Done the Ph test on all the tanks last night and the biorb is 7. wee tank 7.5 Medium tank 7.5 and the big tank is at 7.

I'm sure you are bang on about the stress with the wee cory. I feel awful but a lesson learnt isn't it.

Are the elephant noses the ones with the electric going through their snout? i used to have one many years ago but it didn't fare well.

Can you post some pictures of your fish? I'd love to see them. It seems this is our personal thread now LOL. Mrs panda should wander in now and again though And not forgetting Mr Misanthrope.

Is it now possible to breed your own marine fish. I remember about 20 odd years ago being upset to see a male seahorse with dead baby seahorses floating around him. very distressing it was. Has it changed now that technology has got lots better?