Enneacanthus gloriosus

Tonight I discovered one of my bluespotted sunfish has large pimple looking bumps on his forehead. Are these tubercles or disease? I could not find any info on bluespots having tubercles in breeding season and my feeling is that they do not.
Thanks

Nope, no tubercles. Sounds like some sorta infection in the cephalic pores (where lateral line extends onto the head).

Tonight I discovered one of my bluespotted sunfish has large pimple looking bumps on his forehead. Are these tubercles or disease? I could not find any info on bluespots having tubercles in breeding season and my feeling is that they do not.
Thanks

Nope, no tubercles. Sounds like some sorta infection in the cephalic pores (where lateral line extends onto the head).

OK, any idea what I should do about it?
I've got him in a 55 gallon native community tank and I sure would hate to have it spread around. Could not find any info on the internet.
Thanks

Just acne.

Just acne.

Really? So nothing to worry about? Should I buy them some Clearasil? he. he.
So will it go away?
Thanks

Really? So nothing to worry about? Should I buy them some Clearasil? he. he.
So will it go away?
Thanks

Ah, now I see a third one is getting it. When I look very close at the ones I have separated I think I see that some of the bumps look a little fuzzy, or slimy, but I cannot be sure.
Their faces are looking a little red and irritated too.
One of them looks like he's got a slimy layer peeling up in the infected area.

Edited by Elijah, 10 April 2010 - 02:00 PM.

Clean water, good varied diet, and 1 to 2 teasp per gal salt MIGHT help. It could be Mycobacterium, which often infects head pores, nostrils, eyes, and jaw externally, and kidney, liver and spleen internally. Myco is not curable, but sometimes you can slow or stop its progress by improving the fish's environmental conditions. They can live for years with a low-grade inactive infection. If a fish looks like he's going to die soon, get him OUT so other fish cant nibble on the dying/dead one.

Clean water, good varied diet, and 1 to 2 teasp per gal salt MIGHT help. It could be Mycobacterium, which often infects head pores, nostrils, eyes, and jaw externally, and kidney, liver and spleen internally. Myco is not curable, but sometimes you can slow or stop its progress by improving the fish's environmental conditions. They can live for years with a low-grade inactive infection. If a fish looks like he's going to die soon, get him OUT so other fish cant nibble on the dying/dead one.

Ah, well my tank is a little overstocked, but it is heavily planted with plants that love to eat fish waste. The water parameters are perfect in this tank. the other day I found that my powerhead had clogged up with plant matter and was not putting out any current. The fish were having a rough time because of this. Maybe that weakened them enough to get this?
I feed them frozen blood worms, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, and live blackworms.
I feel like I've got the varied diet and good water conditions going on. What do you think?
Anyway, I now have five Bluespots with this infection. All of the other fish in the tank appear healthy.

Diet sounds excellent. You could also feed them cooked frozen peas (peel off the skin). I'm always amazed at how well the most die-hard carnivores go nuts for peas: even blackbanded sunfish, darters, bass, archerfish ... (haven't tried them yet on pickerel or pirate perch).

Were there any tropical fish in there prior to the bluespots? (or plants, water, gravel, filter media, wood, etc from a tropical tank)? Many tropicals, especially cichlids, rainbowfish, danios and gouramis are notorious for carrying and spreading Mycobacterium. Myco are found everywhere, so the bluespots could have been carrying it naturally, but if it came from tropicals they might have had less resistance to an unfamiliar strain. Of course it could be some other infection too. Myco is slow-growing but persistent. If that's what theyve got, it probably started several weeks or months before you saw any symptoms.

Ah, well my tank is a little overstocked, but it is heavily planted with plants that love to eat fish waste. The water parameters are perfect in this tank. the other day I found that my powerhead had clogged up with plant matter and was not putting out any current. The fish were having a rough time because of this. Maybe that weakened them enough to get this?
I feed them frozen blood worms, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, and live blackworms.
I feel like I've got the varied diet and good water conditions going on. What do you think?
Anyway, I now have five Bluespots with this infection. All of the other fish in the tank appear healthy.

Diet sounds excellent. You could also feed them cooked frozen peas (peel off the skin). I'm always amazed at how well the most die-hard carnivores go nuts for peas: even blackbanded sunfish, darters, bass, archerfish ... (haven't tried them yet on pickerel or pirate perch).

Were there any tropical fish in there prior to the bluespots? (or plants, water, gravel, filter media, wood, etc from a tropical tank)? Many tropicals, especially cichlids, rainbowfish, danios and gouramis are notorious for carrying and spreading Mycobacterium. Myco are found everywhere, so the bluespots could have been carrying it naturally, but if it came from tropicals they might have had less resistance to an unfamiliar strain. Of course it could be some other infection too. Myco is slow-growing but persistent. If that's what theyve got, it probably started several weeks or months before you saw any symptoms.

Yep, I boil peas for my NRBD's but haven't tried feeding them to the Bluespots, I will have to try it.
I have a tank with Gouramis and Danios in it. While researching this Myco today I came to find that a Gourami and a Danio that I euthanized last week most likely had it. I am about 99.9% sure. And I had planted the tank the Bluespots are in with cuttings from multiple tanks including the Gourami/Danio tank. I'm up to six bluespots infected at this point. I keep removing the infected ones. I am going to put them in a planted container pond on my porch and see how they do.
So I also noticed bumps on my hand last night that look very similar to the ones on the fish. Turns out people can catch this too! Hope I am just being a hypochondriac!

I think I got "Fish Myco" in a cut in my thumb several months ago (My siphon-blocking thumb). A couple bumps appered, like deep, hard pimples. They would slowly go away and new ones would appear a few mm away. No pain or itching; just hard bumps. I read that it's usually limited to arms and legs in humans because of lower body temperature, so I soaked my thumb in hot water a couple times a day and it went away, slowly, without antibiotics. But I know others who needed medical treatment to get rid of it. It's easy to diagnose in freshly-killed fish with advanced stage Myco: look for sand-like tan or yellowish granulomas in the kidney, liver and spleen; usually visible without magnification. Wishing you & fish a speedy recovery.

I think I got "Fish Myco" in a cut in my thumb several months ago (My siphon-blocking thumb). A couple bumps appered, like deep, hard pimples. They would slowly go away and new ones would appear a few mm away. No pain or itching; just hard bumps. I read that it's usually limited to arms and legs in humans because of lower body temperature, so I soaked my thumb in hot water a couple times a day and it went away, slowly, without antibiotics. But I know others who needed medical treatment to get rid of it. It's easy to diagnose in freshly-killed fish with advanced stage Myco: look for sand-like tan or yellowish granulomas in the kidney, liver and spleen; usually visible without magnification. Wishing you & fish a speedy recovery.

Hey, thanks for the info. You definitely called it. My fish in this 55 gallon tank are showing pretty much every symptom at this point. I have given up on separating them. I am medicating the tank with Maracyn two as a last ditch effort to save my Starhead and Golden Topminnows as well as the Bleuspots which I have put back in the tank. My darters all died today- the odd thing is, they did not have any symptoms until this morning.
Today was my 38th birthday. Rough way to spend it.
Anyway, I am very bummed, but do very much appreciate your response on this issue. Had I not known I might have spread it on to more tanks. I usually give my buckets and nets a rinse with hot salt water before using them with other tanks and that is not enough to kill off this bacteria.

Tonight I discovered one of my bluespotted sunfish has large pimple looking bumps on his forehead. Are these tubercles or disease? I could not find any info on bluespots having tubercles in breeding season and my feeling is that they do not.
Thanks

Over the past few days I have been watching my 55 gallon tank of Fundulus escambiae, Fundulus chrystotus, Enneacanthus gloriosus, Noturus gyrinus, Noturus leptacanthus, be destroyed by Mycobacterium marinum/Fish Tuberculosis. At first I tried removing all the infected fish in order to save the rest. I had just set up a pond intending to breed some of these as they are very difficult for me to get. -also, I though that would be pretty sweet. I would remove one or two fish and then discover more infected ones hours after giving the tank a good look-over.
At this point I have lost my darters (not mentioned above)and my other fish are all showing symptoms, so I put the ones I had removed back in the tank. I medicated the whole tank with Maracyn two (damned expensive stuff!)in a last ditch effort to save my buddies.
This tank is a little overcrowded, but it is heavily planted, beautifully aquascaped with plenty of hiding spaces, the water parameters are kept at near perfect, and the fish are fed a very healthy and varied diet.
I have been doing a lot of thinking about the cause. It could have come from another tank which has Gouramis and Danios- I took some plant cuttings from it, but I am now thinking that it came from the 25cent bluefin killies that I got from the feeder tank of my LFS. Yep, I was psyched! I got eight small bluefin killies and one tiny bluespotted sunfish from the feeder fish tank for $2.25. The tiny Bluespot is the last healthy bluespot I have- BTW.
First I put the bf killies in my fancy guppy tank. When I ID'd them I moved them to my Native 55. My guppies are all dying off of fish TB too, so that is why I believe it was the bf killies that brought the disease.
Damn I wish I still had a quarantine tank! I guess fish TB can be around for monthst without showing itself though....