Re: My goldfish has a tumour?
#6
I think the best course of action for now, in light of how small your tank is, is to do regular partial water changes - rather than the standard 25% per week, or 100% per ?week that you had been doing, you'd be best doing something along the lines of 25% daily.
Exactly what the right amount to do and how frequently will depend on your water quality results when you monitor the water quality - ammonia and nitrite should be consistently at 0, while nitrates should be consistently no more than 20 (or 20 above whatever your tap water reading is).
Little and often is best eg 25% every second day might be appropriate or you may have to do as much as 50% every day, but make sure that you never let water changes lapse more than weekly - there are other things in the water such as hormones that affect fish but which the water tests don't measure, so, even in the unlikely event that your water quality seemed ok after a week, it's best to do a water change anyway - and the older goldfish get, the more they require water quality to be perfect.
There is no need to take him out of the tank and put him in the bath while undertaking water changes from now on - that will be one less stress for him and reduces the likelihood of any injury also.
There is a possibility that the water changes alone to ensure that water quality is in optimal condition (anything higher than the levels I mentioned is toxic to goldfish) may actually solve the problem and that the growth disappears of its own accord, although I think this is unlikely. However, he may well be able to live with it, and it not affect him, provided that you keep an eye out to ensure that a bacterial infection doesn't set in as I think probably happened in my case.
Coincidentally again, my goldfish was also 14 years old when he had this problem, and I was advised that he was too old for surgery. However, vets may have a different view now than they did 3 years ago - you may find this
https://www.fishvetsociety.org.uk/inte ... illing-to-treat-pet-fish/ helpful or, if not, contact the veterinary dept in one of the unis which sometimes have contacts/researchers/vets who deal specifically with fish and who may be able to advise.
Hope that helps.