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Surgery on a fish??


Sally J

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My bird wrass, "Larry Long Nose" has a growth on his nose :o:o , it has been slowly growing. :-? Does anyone know who does surgery on fish??? :hail: It is not affecting his eating ability yet :lol: , but I think it will soon. :cry: I could put him to sleep with clove oil, cut off the growth and see if he lives?? I wonder how you would promote healing, maybe keep him in a hospital tank with lots of alovera. Has anyone done this?? Poor Larry!! :cry:

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I had a fish with a growth on its lip, it wasn't exactly in the mouth bit not outside it either.

It grew very very slowly, but eventually got to the point it was getting all red when he ate and was in the way of him closing his mouth. It obstructed half of its mouth when open.

I got all worried and started googling fish tumours.

Turns out most fish tumours are caused by viruses, not cancer.

And they can naturally rupture and go away (but it also releases more of the virus).

Basically after my googling I felt good that it was non-fatal but it still didn't look comfortable.

Not long after I realised it had vanished! (I had four very similar-looking fish). There wasn't even a flappy bit. It never returned and never affected any other fish.

I would say leave it alone, and only euthanase if it is SERIOUSLY and OBVIOUSLY affected by it.

Good luck :)

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Good idea!! Think I will just leave him for now, hope it just drops off!!! The surgeon at work wasn't keen to have a go :lol: :lol: and even talking to the vet, he wasn't keen either. We will just have to call him "Larry Big Nose" now!! :lol: Thanks for all the help. :bounce:

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The easiest answer and I always say it. Buy a cleaner shrimp. As the name suggests they clean. Its amazing what they work away at.

They also look cool. I suggest that every marine tank should have a least two. Unless you have fish that will eat them.

ust check the wrasse wouldn't eat it first. Never had a bird nose wrasse

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  • 7 months later...

I finally had to do something with Larry Long Nose. He wasn't able to eat anymore, I did manage to feed him by hand, but the tumour got so big that it obstructed his vision and couldn't catch anything in his mouth.

I decided to go with the surgery thing....

I was able to catch him quiet easily in the end, he just swam into my net while getting chased and annoyed by the cleaner wrasse. I hadn't managed to get the courage up to do it, so when he landed in my net....that was it, I had to do something for him.

I put about 5 drops of clove oil in a bucket, it took about a minite for him to roll over onto his back and go to sleep.

I wrapped his body in a wet gauze, wiped his nose with iodine (without alcohole) to clean the surface skin, injected marcain (which is a local aneasthetic) with adrenalin, which would stop any bleeding. I was quiet nervous as I didn't want to have him out of the water for too long....My husband assisted me by holding him while I got the stitch cutter with the tweezers....it was quiet a hard mass of grissel type tissue, quiet hard to get a grip of....I removed all of the tumour in about 3 minites...or thats how long it seemed....I then covered the area in a antibiotic cream and stress coat....there was no bleeding.

It took about a minite holding Larry in front of the power head in the hospital tank set up....he started to breath again and swim away. I was so excited just reviving him....he survived the first night just sleeping really, and in the morning he actually ate some breackfast, and then some lunch too!! I was even more excited!!! By that evening he seemed to slow down, and by the morning he was dead. I was so upset at this outcome, but I feel that it was the quality of the hospital tank which lead to his death in the end. I did water changes each day but that wasn't enough....I think if I had rigged up a way so that I could have introduced him into the big tank he would have survived. It was great to see him being able to eat again as he just loved food!!!

I never thought that I would be quiet as upset as I have been over a fish!!!! :cry:

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:cry: so sorry to hear that sally, at least you tried, you did your very best and unfortunatley these things just happen sometimes :(. Did you have any liverock in the hospital tank and skimmer or was it just bare? i wonder if perhaps it was an infection rather than the surgery
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Yes I do have some rock in the hospital tank....just wasn't good enough....I think he may have been week too as he hadn't been able to feed properly for a while....but he still looked healthy enough. His nose looked good, no signs of infection at all, thats what makes me so mad with myself!!! :x He was a cool fish, he use to look at me with those eyes!!! I am sure he recognized different people. What happened to the Bird Wrasse you had for sale with Trigger??

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Ha hope the lawers don't come looking for me!!!! :roll: :lol:

Hope Caryl can put some of those pictures up for you guys to see, I was amazed at how the clove oil worked so well.

I think I could make a fish surgeon....but my nursing skills sucked!! :(

I buried Larry in the veggie garden...with "Hugo" my lawn mower blennie.

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Hi Sally , I am impressed with the efforts that you went to to save your fish. That was a big growth. Good on you for trying - you did all that you could. I can understand how upset you must have been to loose him. Not many people would go to the lengths you did to try and save him. Other fish may be saved in the future by what you have learnt thru this. Well done.

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