Lympho Advice

[calaxa]

Lee,

I have a copperband butterfly that is very healthy and appears to be doing very well. I added a new tankmate several weeks ago and the CBB developed a bit of lympho on his left fin from the stress of the new addition. It developed a few days after the new addition. He still eats very heartily and the lympho has not grown/spread. It's been on his fin about 3 weeks now and does not seem to bother him in the least (no flashing, nothing to indicate he knows it's even there) However, it bothers me a great deal to look at him with this clumpy stuff on his fin. I was hoping it would go away on its own but it seems like I might have to perform some type of manual removal at this point. Any further advice you can give me before I look to "surgery?"

[leebca]

Unless you're very competent at fish surgery, I would leave it alone and work on reducing stressors. Check the following to make sure all is well. . .

Water quality (read this closely and investigate all angles: What is Water Quality);
Foods, feeding, and nutrition (read this closely and follow all recommendations for that kind of fish: Feeding Marine Fish and Fish Nutrition; and
Environmental issues (is tank overcrowded? tank mate issues? etc.).

Surgery can open a wound that doesn't exist, create more stress, and/or spread the virus.