Fish disease ID help please

[outdrsyguy1]

Hi all. Got a couple damsels from the LFS and didn't do a good job inspecting them before I got home. Got home and noticed some white stuff on their fins. 1st one dies the next morning and second one is eating good and seems fairly active.
I'm thinking fin rot since a large chunk of the tail is missing but never had experience with this sort of thing.

Thanks in advance!

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[jennm]

That looks like Lymphocystis.

Lymphocystis is viral - like warts, and is usually brought on by stress. It's usually harmless, unless it's on/in mouth or gills and affects the fish's ability to eat.

I doubt that is what killed the other damsel, but it could be a symptom of some major stress the fishes have been through.

How long did the store have them? Did you quarantine these?

Just an aside, most people rue the day they added damsels to their display - they are hateful fish. Cheap, colourful, and by and large they are pretty hardy... but they are EVIL and aggressive.

The biggest risk to damsels is shipping stress. Because they are so cheap, they are often shipped from their point of origin (Philippines, Indonesia etc.) with many in one bag - maybe even 50 or more to a bag, so the bag water is really gnarly by the time they get to this side of the planet. More valuable fish are usually shipped one per bag. Bag water still gets nasty with long transit but imagine 50 fishes in one bag of water...

So they come in stressed, perhaps with some ammonia burns etc. Maybe kept in an over-stocked wholesaler tank... shipped again to the LFS and then quickly sold again.

Even the toughest fish would be a bit wilted after all that.

I'd quarantine that fish, just feed it well and watch and wait, keep the lights out, keep the stress low. The growths should go away on their own, and tail/fin tissue should regrow in a week to 10 days. The growths may take a couple of weeks to vanish, after the fish calms down.

Again though, I'd think about damsels - they often won't tolerate other fishes that are added to the tank later.

Jenn

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Thanks Jenn! I cycled my back of house system and figured I'd put in a couple hardy fish to keep a little buffer to keep it cycled before the main tank is connected. It's just one of 3 40g breeders and it'll be easy to pull it out if need be. I don't plan on putting any damsels in the DT, even if it is almost 1000 gallons hehe. Those little punks can be real terrors.
Thanks again for the advice!
Oh, to answer your question there was a swarm of damsels in the tank, I didn't ask how long it had been there and I think the other one just died from stress before he even got settled into the tank.