Hello all! I am new to MFK, so please excuse me if I post the wrong way or do something in the wrong manner, as I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to using this site. I created an account on here specifically for one single reason, and that is to hopefully find out what is wrong with our Bichir.
I am not the fish expert of the house, that would be my Husband, so asking me complex questions may not receive very educated answers to be honest.What I DO know, is that our Bichir lives in a 20gal tank as of right now by herself, except for one single snail, and she is (we guessed that she’s a she, but she could be a he) now getting to be about the size necessary for a larger tank, which is on the to-do list for the next paycheck. Khaleesi, that’s her name, eats hikari sinking carnivore pelletsfreeze dried brine shrimp and “bug bites”, we switch it up to keep her well versed in a varying diet as best as possible with what our local pet store has to offer. She occasionally eats feeder fish, which my Husband has bred himself at home on his own, to prevent from any bacteria or diseases etc. getting into her wee little body via feeder fish, he says. He also says water parameters are normal and nothing to worry about, thankfully, so we’re good there as well, and then I am the one responsible for the 25-30% water changes every week-two weeks, while adding in the stuff necessary for the water and what not that my Husband instructs me to add in, in order to keep her water the way she needs it via certain chemicals here and there, such as a tap water cleaner to get the bad stuff out so it doesn’t harm her, and things of that nature. All old food is removed from the tank once she is finished eating as well.
So now on to the problem. About 3-4 weeks ago, Khaleesi grew a randomly placed lump on her “back”. It just appeared one day, almost as if she had eaten or swallowed something that was too big for her, or she didn’t chew it up, or it was something she shouldn’t have eaten. But here’s the thing: it’s not on her stomach, it’s on her back/topside, the opposite side of her stomach! I have googled and researched relentlessly, to no avail, to finding anything even remotely related to what’s going on with her, and so far, I’ve only found people saying that it has to be something the Bichir ate or it’s a compaction or a rock, and remedies to fix the issue. But that’s just it, this problem is nothing to do with her stomach, it’s on her back, so it can’t be something she ate or a compaction or a rock, right?
The only thing I could find in my days of relentless searching online (very very hard to find and vague in its explanation as well) was that it could possibly be a tumor? The only other thing I found that was close to what’s wrong with her, was another person had a similar issue as mine, where their Bichir’s lump ended up growing and protruding out so far for so long that it ended up bursting through the skin, and was just a giant tumor looking thing that kept growing bigger and bigger, and ruptured through the skin, until eventually the poor Bichir died. And NO ONE could explain what had happened, what it even was, or if there’s any possible way to fix it or at least ease the suffering, if there is any.
Khaleesi seems to be perfectly fine, despite her lump. It IS growing in size, because it wasn’t this large a month ago when it first appeared, but she doesn’t seem to be bothered by it, because she still eats normally, swims normally, and behaves just as she always has ever since we got her about 10 months ago. We purchased her from our local pet store I mentioned, and they didn’t really give us any info on her, like we don’t even know exactly how old she is, or if she’s a male or female, so we assumed female just to name her something instead of calling her “Fish”. The local fish store has not been any help with what’s wrong, even though they are who we purchased her from, so really all we know about her, is what we could learn about her online and through my Husbands knowledge of fish as well. When my Husband went to get her out of the tank for me to put her in an epsom salt bath (I did one to make sure it wasn’t stomach related so that that could be ruled out) she did thrash about and try to escape from his hand, but we assumed she just didn’t want to be out of the water… but upon reading about others’ experiences with Bichir’s online, it seems that they actually don’t mind to be out of water and/or are a lot calmer than Khaleesi is when having to be moved from the tank. Which begs the question, is she in pain, and the tumor-like knot is so tender that she doesn’t want to be touched? And that’s why she thrashes about? I’m unsure, and so is my Husband.
Sorry to make this so long, truly, but we are severely worried about our girl, and want to ease any suffering she may be experiencing because of this knot on her back, if any. Or at least just to know what to do for her, incase it continues to grow, and so on.
Once I figure out how to add pictures to this site, I’ll add some of her and her knot/lump on her back so you can see for yourselves. Just got to figure out how to add them. As I said, I’m still super new to using this site, and am just desperate to get any information at all to help our poor Bichir. Thank you so much for taking the time out to read this!
I figured out how to upload pics I think! So I tried to take and upload as many pictures of her as possible and tried from almost every angle so you guys can see the knot/lump at different angles, to assess the size of the knot and how it has grown. These pics are NOT in order from when they were taken though, they’re all just mixed together, but I’m sure you can tell which ones are older than others. I had to feed her some brine shrimp to get her to come up to let me take pics today lol so please excuse the food everywhere in some pics, she was in the middle of eating. ?
I am not the fish expert of the house, that would be my Husband, so asking me complex questions may not receive very educated answers to be honest.What I DO know, is that our Bichir lives in a 20gal tank as of right now by herself, except for one single snail, and she is (we guessed that she’s a she, but she could be a he) now getting to be about the size necessary for a larger tank, which is on the to-do list for the next paycheck. Khaleesi, that’s her name, eats hikari sinking carnivore pelletsfreeze dried brine shrimp and “bug bites”, we switch it up to keep her well versed in a varying diet as best as possible with what our local pet store has to offer. She occasionally eats feeder fish, which my Husband has bred himself at home on his own, to prevent from any bacteria or diseases etc. getting into her wee little body via feeder fish, he says. He also says water parameters are normal and nothing to worry about, thankfully, so we’re good there as well, and then I am the one responsible for the 25-30% water changes every week-two weeks, while adding in the stuff necessary for the water and what not that my Husband instructs me to add in, in order to keep her water the way she needs it via certain chemicals here and there, such as a tap water cleaner to get the bad stuff out so it doesn’t harm her, and things of that nature. All old food is removed from the tank once she is finished eating as well.
So now on to the problem. About 3-4 weeks ago, Khaleesi grew a randomly placed lump on her “back”. It just appeared one day, almost as if she had eaten or swallowed something that was too big for her, or she didn’t chew it up, or it was something she shouldn’t have eaten. But here’s the thing: it’s not on her stomach, it’s on her back/topside, the opposite side of her stomach! I have googled and researched relentlessly, to no avail, to finding anything even remotely related to what’s going on with her, and so far, I’ve only found people saying that it has to be something the Bichir ate or it’s a compaction or a rock, and remedies to fix the issue. But that’s just it, this problem is nothing to do with her stomach, it’s on her back, so it can’t be something she ate or a compaction or a rock, right?
The only thing I could find in my days of relentless searching online (very very hard to find and vague in its explanation as well) was that it could possibly be a tumor? The only other thing I found that was close to what’s wrong with her, was another person had a similar issue as mine, where their Bichir’s lump ended up growing and protruding out so far for so long that it ended up bursting through the skin, and was just a giant tumor looking thing that kept growing bigger and bigger, and ruptured through the skin, until eventually the poor Bichir died. And NO ONE could explain what had happened, what it even was, or if there’s any possible way to fix it or at least ease the suffering, if there is any.
Khaleesi seems to be perfectly fine, despite her lump. It IS growing in size, because it wasn’t this large a month ago when it first appeared, but she doesn’t seem to be bothered by it, because she still eats normally, swims normally, and behaves just as she always has ever since we got her about 10 months ago. We purchased her from our local pet store I mentioned, and they didn’t really give us any info on her, like we don’t even know exactly how old she is, or if she’s a male or female, so we assumed female just to name her something instead of calling her “Fish”. The local fish store has not been any help with what’s wrong, even though they are who we purchased her from, so really all we know about her, is what we could learn about her online and through my Husbands knowledge of fish as well. When my Husband went to get her out of the tank for me to put her in an epsom salt bath (I did one to make sure it wasn’t stomach related so that that could be ruled out) she did thrash about and try to escape from his hand, but we assumed she just didn’t want to be out of the water… but upon reading about others’ experiences with Bichir’s online, it seems that they actually don’t mind to be out of water and/or are a lot calmer than Khaleesi is when having to be moved from the tank. Which begs the question, is she in pain, and the tumor-like knot is so tender that she doesn’t want to be touched? And that’s why she thrashes about? I’m unsure, and so is my Husband.
Sorry to make this so long, truly, but we are severely worried about our girl, and want to ease any suffering she may be experiencing because of this knot on her back, if any. Or at least just to know what to do for her, incase it continues to grow, and so on.
Once I figure out how to add pictures to this site, I’ll add some of her and her knot/lump on her back so you can see for yourselves. Just got to figure out how to add them. As I said, I’m still super new to using this site, and am just desperate to get any information at all to help our poor Bichir. Thank you so much for taking the time out to read this!
I figured out how to upload pics I think! So I tried to take and upload as many pictures of her as possible and tried from almost every angle so you guys can see the knot/lump at different angles, to assess the size of the knot and how it has grown. These pics are NOT in order from when they were taken though, they’re all just mixed together, but I’m sure you can tell which ones are older than others. I had to feed her some brine shrimp to get her to come up to let me take pics today lol so please excuse the food everywhere in some pics, she was in the middle of eating. ?
? I’d feel silly changing his name now though, as the kids know and love him as Khaleesi ??
