Hi All,

Got a problem. Saratoga Lei, few months old, growing brilliantly (13 to 25cm) housed with 2 small bichirs and now a 30cm ghost knife. 6x18x18 tank, driftwood, airpumps, standard filtration combinations etc. Saratoga fed on hikari pellets and various frozen foods, never live foods.

My first Saratoga, but I thought I knew what I was doing, and I'm really beating myself up on this one. Been working doubletime recently and the water quality slipped a little for a week or so (never doing fine sand again) and was rectified ASAP. All fish are doing well nonetheless except that the toga has developed a lump on his lower jaw, inside his mouth towards the barbels. It is about the size of a smartie now, and growing fast. The growth is pink in colour, and no longer allows the fish to close his mouth. It will soon interfere with his eating.

I can't find any info on arofanatics or in the usual encyclopeadic-type fish remedy sites, so I'm calling out for advice.

I've included a photo (he's afraid of the camera) and a video. Apologies for the poor quality.

it seems to be a tumour of sorts - very little you can do to stop it, but increased salt levels to dehydrate the fish might slow it down.
If it were possible to get a closer look, then I could identify it better, but from the photo, this is what it looks like.

There is no treatment - though if it gets in the way of breathing and eating, one can cut it away somewhat - but there will be plenty of bleeding afterwards, and it will grow back.

Hmmm. Well that's sad but I guess there's not much I can do about it. Being with a knifefish, high salt levels may cause more harm in the tank than good, but I'll see what I can do. Surgery is not really an option as it wouldn't be a viable long-term solution.

Would it help if I brought it in to aquotix Oliver?

I can't help thinking that it would be more humane to put him down before he can't get oxygen or food

Some more pics. Hopefully this can help more.





In the video at about 0:44 you can see it clearly. It got scared of the flash so I had to put some food in to lure him up