Lumps!

[gro]

Howdy,

If your lucky, you will know her as Del! If not she has been my longest disc.
After having some trials with her she has come good eating etc. Even some of her peppering has gone away!

But now she has developed a lump on her tail right at the end of her spine, sorry couldn't take photo but have relied on art class' from wickedglass to produce the following caricature,

anyone got any ideas, thanks in advance!!

mind you as in the drawing she is happy and eating well!

[Merrilyn]

I've been told that this is caused by a calcium deficiency during the growing stages.

Nothing you can do now to change things, and it's not harmful to your fish. :P

[Bill T]

Apart from the lump, the picture shows a very healthy and contented fish.
I can't remeber the last time I saw such a look of contentment on any of my fish!

[Seaview]

I've been told that this is caused by a calcium deficiency during the growing stages.

Nothing you can do now to change things, and it's not harmful to your fish. :P

I too have read and heard that it is caused from lack of calcium during growth. Also have been told that it is not harmful to the fish and will still live a happy and heathy life. :)

[gro]

thanks guys,

calcium deficiencies, is that from maybe not enough food, or the wrong food??

the other three are fine,

del did stop eating a while back, maybe that caused the deficiency??

cheers

gro

[Merrilyn]

Fish get the majority of their calcium from the water. I always add a handful of shellgrit to the water in grow out tanks, to make up for the lack of calcium and minerals in our very soft Melbourne water.

[gro]

thanks ladyred

[fishgeek]

merrilyn why do you believe that fish get there calcium from water rather than diet?
it has always intrigued me and i was wondering whether this was one of ther reasons harder waters were suggested for growing out discus

andrew

[Merrilyn]

Hi Andrew, it's something I've read several times, and I know that discus guru Jack Wattley recommended using harder water for growing out young discus.

We have VERY soft water in most parts of Australia. I often get a KH readong of between zero and one. In the wild, discus would be feeding on small shrimp and insects, and would gain a lot of their calcium needs from the shells of these aquatic creatures.

Unless calcium is added to the diet, there is minimal calcium in the beefheart vegetables and shelled prawns that form the staple diet a lot of discus breeders.

In all the years that I've been breeding discus (over 30 now) I have always tossed in a handfull of shell grit or crushed coral into the bottom of the fry tanks, and I've not seen that problem in my own fish.

Happy to listen to other opinions. We're all here to learn. :P

[fishgeek]

thanks that makes sense , you are only suggesting they need it in the water because the diet is lacking or inapprpriate in calcium/phosphorus balance
i wonder whether sunlight plays a part in vit d/calcium metabolism in fish

thanks for clarifying, this kind of statement has alwatys made me think something along the line of babies getting there calcium from the air not the milk they drink... extreme unwillingness to accept anything without an understanding

andrew

[Merrilyn]

No problems Andrew. Fish keepers should never just accept things with blind faith. There's a lot of mis-information out there on the web.

In the ideal world we would replicate their natural diet, and they would gain all the calcium they need from the exoskeletons of insects or from the skeletons of small tetras which would form a large part of the diet.

I guess we could add calcium powder to the prepared food, but not sure how effective this would be, and a lot of the dry foods have added calcium as part of their ingredients.

Fish do drink water, so with calcium in the water, it would help to increase their calcium intake. I doubt very much that calcium can be absorbed via the mucus membrane, so ingestion is the only way, but it might be an interesting area to explore.

Vitamin D in the metabolism of Calcium in fish ??? I'm honestly not sure. I do know it's essential in mammals, but in fish ..........hmmm. Does the lighting in our fish tanks replicate the sun. If it's enough to make the plants grow and photosynthesize, then maybe so.

Any thoughts?