Orandas with white lumps - is it nodular disease?

Hi Tom,
Thanks for taking the time to read through and reply. The dead oranda & moor were the first fish to be added to the tank after two weeks of having the tank up&running ready for them. I waited a further two weeks before adding another two fish...it's a 42l tank with a fluval 1 filter. The tank is at room temperature...but it is the living room so is warm during the evenings when I'm home. My fish have been rather stressed with me getting used to cleaning the tank properly and learning how to care for them properly..but the remaining ones all seem happy now and I'm no longer disturbing the water as much (I bought an algae-scrapper & siphon so that i only had to do partial water changes often, rather than full cleanouts). I find it more than coincidental that the only two fish i bought from a particular petshop are the ones to get get ill...the moor was in what i now recognise as 'bad shape' when i bought him! I couldn't tell if the gills on the oranda were 'whitish' because it was a white/silver fish with only red tail-tips. But....the fins had been firmly clamped down for several weeks & the fish had been darting frequently (showing obvious irritation) before the first big lump appeared on it's back & it was when a second, larger lump started to form taking up the entire belly of the fish that i took the decision to put it out of it's suffering.
The fish now in the tank seem happy and healthy and so until symptoms (if any) present themselves, then I am not going to treat them for anything or take the drastic action of disposing of them.

Thanks again for your advice.

Originally Posted by Tom L. La Bron

Eastland,

Let us look at this in the real world. There are six parasites that could
be causing your problem. Myxosporulus is just one of them. It is rare and
usually only affects eggs and fry. Unless you are feeding your fish live
tubifex worms chances are this problem did not originate with tubifex worms.
Freeze dried and frozen worms are all irradiated these days and if you read
the packaging it usually states that, so unless you are feeding live worms
chances are your fish didn't get it from the worms.

At this point in time Ingrid, especially Jo Ann and you are just guessing as
to what your fish have. In fact, it is possible that your fish could have
TB, but that is very unlikely.

There is also one other problem. You say that you water quality is good,
but most nodular disease appearances are brought on by stress and poor water
quality. It is very possible that you brought the disease home with you
since you mention that the moor died not long after introduction the tank,
which also suggests that you didn't quarantine you fish before adding them
to you established home environment. So since by you own report you have
not quarantined I would say that in no way tubifex worms were involved in
any way, shape or form, especially considering that they are all now
virtually eradiated as previously mentioned.

How to the gills look. If they are whitish (which they probably would be
for an advanced stage that will kill fish) it could possibly be "nodular
disease," but you have to remember that is an imprecise diagnosis because
you have no idea what parasite is bothering your fish. Also, your
description of "nodular disease" leaves out the fact that it only advances
fast at higher temperatures and you have never told what you keep the tank
at.

If there is no treatment, as you have stated, it would be prudent for you to
dispose of you fish, sterilize the tank with bleach, and start over again.

Again, the Expert Jo Ann is not totally right as speaking through Ingrid,
for formaldehyde is only effective again parasites Apiosoma, Ribscyphidia
and Ambiphrya and if Caprinianna is present only cooper treatments would be
effective. So until you figure out what culprit you are dealing with you
are shooting in the dark and formaldehyde is a pretty harsh treatment.

Sorry I can not help you very much, but until you find out what is bothering
your fish physically instead of looking problems on the internet, there is
not much anyone can do for you, but guess.

Tom L.L.