Hi Rich, thanks for stopping by. And no, I don't know magic, but lymphocystis is pretty well understood. It is a viral disease which causes the epithelial (skin) cells of the fish to proliferate, making those characteristic egg-like masses. There is no drug treatment because the virus uses the fish's own cellular machinery to replicate itself--so anything you try to do to the virus will also hurt the fish. That's why there are so few human medications for viral illnesses.
You have a few choices for treatment. One is to do nothing and let the fish's own immune system defeat it. You can help this along by providing excellent nutrition, heavy feedings, and good water quality. If there are masses that are easy to get to, like at the edge of a fin, you can clip it, but be sure to give a wide margin around the mass. The fin will grow back perfectly well in most cases. If you have to scrape the side of the fish you can do that too, and again you will be surprised--fish heal with much less long term damage and scarring than we do. There are some anecdotal reports of addition of beta-glucan to the food being beneficial; in this case, it can't hurt and can only do good.
If you scrape and you feel that the wound you've created is too vulnerable to infection, or is deep and messy, you can use a product called Biobandage, made by Hikari. It will serve as a sort of liquid-to-gel bandaid to seal the wound. I'd swab the wound with a disinfectant like betadine first though to make sure you don't seal in bacteria.
And that's it--watch and wait and fatten the fish up :) |