# New Multis, Bump Below Mouth



## shifty803 (May 17, 2020)

New to the forum and new to _N. Multifasciatus_ as well. I have had SA dwarf cichlids about a decade ago but never these little fellows.

Anyway, I feel like this is probably nothing but wanted to run it by people with more experience. One of my brand new multis has a small protuberance below its mouth, right in the center of its body. Is that something to be concerned about? The others are all smooth under their mouths, and I don't recall seeing something like this before.

Thanks for the help!


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Welcome to C-F!!

I've not seen something like that before so for now I would monitor it to see if it changes. Does it look more like a skin tag on the surface or does it look more like something is imbedded in the flesh?

IF you can catch him easily enough, maybe a pic from a couple more angles might be helpful. Not sure if a pic with the fish in water or out of water temporarily would be more helpful.


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## shifty803 (May 17, 2020)

Catching him is too difficult. Once they're in the shells they are super hard to extract and net.

Looks like some sort of lesion but the color matches the surrounding tissue exactly. I will continue to keep an eye on it and see if I notice any change.


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## sir_keith (Oct 30, 2018)

It doesn't look like an infection, more like an ectopic growth of some kind. Nothing you can do except keep him well-fed and happy, and hope that his immune system deals with the problem. Good luck.


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## shifty803 (May 17, 2020)

sir_keith said:


> It doesn't look like an infection, more like an ectopic growth of some kind. Nothing you can do except keep him well-fed and happy, and hope that his immune system deals with the problem. Good luck.


Interesting, thank you for the info. There does not seem to be much on this topic - most google searches yield articles about thyroid problems in humans.

In any case, it is good to know this is likely not infectious.

Right now that particular fish is clearly the dominant male. He's also the only one that doesn't bolt for a shell when I move around a lot in front of the tank. I will keep monitoring and see what happens.


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