# Mass protruding from vent



## Nightshade (Aug 7, 2017)

Hello everyone  I'm a new member, though I've lurked in the past. I wish my first post was under better circumstances.

I have a two year old bumblebee cichlid, Apidae, in our tank at work that was fine Wednesday and when I came in on Thursday had a mass protruding from her vent. What little I could find suggested a prolapse, so I stopped feeding her, moved her to a quarantine tank, and did an epsom salt treatment of 1Tb / 5 gallons. Here is what the mass looked like then (my apologies that the pictures aren't all better):



















Things hadn't changed much on Friday and I continued with water changes, epsom salt and witholding food. When I returned today (Monday, so 4 days since this was first noticed), the mass is bigger:




























It's pale pink and seems to have lighter, almost white pieces in it. Apidae (otherwise seems in good spirits. She begs for food like always, splashes to say hi, and doesn't appear listless or ill. I'm obviously very concerned and don't want her to be in pain, but I no longer thing she has a prolapse as it doesn't look like any of the pictures I've seen.

I'd deeply appreciate any advice, because I don't want her to suffer needlessly.


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## Nightshade (Aug 7, 2017)

ETA: forgot the other details!

:!: What is the size and dimensions of your tank and what SPECIES of fish do you have? (This helps identify potential aggression or overstocking problems.): Pseudotropheus crabro, 2 years old, only fish in the tank, 30 gal tank previously, 5 gal quarantine tank currently.

:!: How long has it been set up? Is it CYCLED? (This can rule out cycling issues.): Tank has been set up for three years with no cycling issues.

:!: What are your water parameters: I'd have to test this specifically, I don't think that this pertains to my particular problem, but I'm happy to do this if others find this helpful.

:!: How long have you had the fish and what symptoms do they have? What do you FEED them? Have you introduced any new fish recently? What is your MAINTENANCE schedule, and what product/s (if any) do you use to neutralize chlorine or chloramines in your TAP WATER? ): Apidae is 2 years old, it's just her and some snails in the tank (she has aggression issues with literally anything else in a tank with her). Maintenance schedule is a 15% water change once weekly treated with Microbe-Lift Dechlorinator + water conditioner. She's fed New Life Spectrum Cichlid Formula and Cobalt Aquatics Spirulena Pellets


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## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

She looks eggbound.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Yeah I'm with you on that one Noddy. She is definitely egg bound.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

You can catch her and gently try to massage the eggs out but you can't leave her prolapsed and egg bound...


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## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

I've only dealt with it once and it didn't end well for the fish. I don't know what you would do other than epsom salts.


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## Nightshade (Aug 7, 2017)

Oh fantastic  At least it's not her intestines or something fatal. I'll do some more reading on how to accomplish helping her and I'll update everyone asap. Thank you so much!


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## Nightshade (Aug 7, 2017)

Hey again! I can't find much that looks exactly like what Apidae has. Do I just massage her, or is there a need to lance the sack holding the eggs?


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Try massaging the eggs out first, if that doesn't work then lance the membrane with a sterilized razor but only as small of an incision as is necessary to get the eggs out. Then start feeding metronidazole soaked food for two weeks to prevent infection. Water cleanliness is going to be paramount after performing the procedure, a hospital tank would be ideal.


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## Nightshade (Aug 7, 2017)

Good to know  She's already in a hospital tank, so that's good. I'll order some metronidazole and will try massaging first, and then wait until I have the metronidazole before attempting lancing. Hopefully it's not needed. :[


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

I hope not too, poor girl...


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## Nightshade (Aug 7, 2017)

We tried fish massage without any results  Here's hoping her metronidazole food arrives on time tomorrow. She's not eating much, either, but she is eating.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Hopefully all goes well and you can save her.


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## Nightshade (Aug 7, 2017)

Possibly encouraging news? Her mass has (to my immense surprise) almost totally retreated into her vent.

This was it on Wednesday when I first noticed the improvement (when I came home from lunch on noon):



















Then, over the last 24 hours it has pulled totally inside (though you can still see her vent and some bulging).










Because of handling her, she has a white strip on her side and white on one of her eyes, so I treated the water with Furan-2 (nitrofurazone) and her medicated food (metronidazole) came today and she's eating it eagerly. She'd been off her food so this is also encouraging.

I feel being optimistic is dangerous, but this does seem encouraging.

ETA: I'm also continuing frequent changes and epsom salt during this.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

She must have finally passed the eggs! That's great and hopefully she continues to improve. Are you from the U.K. by any chance?


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## Nightshade (Aug 7, 2017)

I hope she keeps improving, too  I'll continue to post updates.

I'm in the US, but I'd be curious as to why you thought I might be in the UK? You're not the first person to think that.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

I see that you're in the US but you say things like people in the U.K. lol. Like "off her food" and "on noon"


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## Nightshade (Aug 7, 2017)

Hahhahaa I'll have to blame a heavy dose of reading British fantasy fiction growing up and the fact that I have a lot of international customers 

Good catch, though ^_^ I'm not sure most people would have noticed.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Lol, it's okay. If people wouldn't look at me like I'm stupid I'd use cockney slang and Scottish phrases daily!


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## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

I didn't notice, and I'm from the U.K ; )

Somebodys been watching too much coronation street.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Lol, I have a couple of friends through the forum that currently live in Scotland so it's been fresh in my mind.


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## Nightshade (Aug 7, 2017)

She's continuing to improve, so I'll keep up what I'm doing (tank antibiotics, epsom salts, medicated food, frequent water changes).

Apidae still has a scuff on her side where her slime coating came off, but her eye on that side is now clear.


















^
you can see the scuff in this picture

My coworkers are very excited and asking when she can come back to work, but I want her to be fully healed before I stress her more by moving her back.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Awesome!!! I'm glad that she is improving and you're right, it's best to wait until she is 100% before reintroducing her to the main tank. Don't give the antibiotics for more than 10 days though, anything over that could start to damage her liver and kidneys.


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## Nightshade (Aug 7, 2017)

She should be done with her food antibiotics on Thursday (7 days) and her tank antibiotics tomorrow (5 days) so I'll make sure to stop both treatments at the appointed time. 

I'm so excited she's doing well!


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Great to hear she is improving and she definitely looks so much better!


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## Nightshade (Aug 7, 2017)

I wanted to give another update! Apidae was returned to her normal tank. She's doing great, so thank you, everyone, for your advice and reassurance.

To sum, here's what her treatment was in case anyone uses this for future reference:
- hospital tank with epsom salt treatments 1 tb / 10 gallons
- daily water changes (replacing the proper ratio of epsom salts)
- Massage (once, the mass began to retreat the next day)
- metronidazole food for 6 days
- Furan-2 (nitrofurazone) for 5 days as directed on the package

And here are the happy fish pictures!


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

That's great! I'm so glad she's back to her normal old self and a beautiful example of her species.


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