Update: White Cloud with spot on his head passed away (warning: dead fish photo)

[Goldie Blue]

A week or two ago I posted about my white cloud minnow having a black spot on his head. Unfortunately I woke up this morning to find that he passed away over night. I had a few people chime in on what they thought it might be, I took some better pictures to hopefully get more input.

This guy had this spot for at least 6 months, maybe more. It didn't seem to affect him in any way, he was active, ate good, swam with the school. Someone thought it may have been cancer? None of my other white clouds or fish have this, and this poor guy did not have it when I first bought him (he was close to 2 years being in my tank). All my water parameters were fine this morning (Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrates 10ppm), and I check weekly with my water changes. Tank has been in great shape for a while now.

I wasn't sure if we needed to tag posts about photos with dead fishies, so thought I would just in case! 

[Guppysnail]

@Hobbit dealt with cancer issues in her platy group. Possibly she can shed more light? sorry you lost your little one. 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Guppysnail

[DaveO]

What a shame. Such a pretty fish.

[nabokovfan87]

Very sorry for your loss.  It's always difficult. 

I think the fish might've injured himself, some disease, or like others had mentioned genetics.  I really, really don't know.  It kind of looks like it's a black coating and it started discoloring the top of the eye?

[TheSwissAquarist]

Could be a tumor?

[Hobbit]

Im so sorry for your fish! ❤️ I did have some platys develop spots like that on their head. It was a group that was prone to cancerous tumors (specifically black pigmented ones) because of their genetics. If you’re interested, I wrote a whole post on it here. Most of them grew external tumors, but I did have one or two grow something like this on their head. It never grew into a raised bump, just got bigger and bigger. I don’t know whether it eventually killed the fish because I gave it to my LFS to be a feeder. So based on my very limited experience, I would guess this is a melanistic tumor.

Edited December 15, 2022 by Hobbit
Adding link

[Goldie Blue]

On 12/14/2022 at 11:54 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

It kind of looks like it's a black coating and it started discoloring the top of the eye?

Yes, I noticed this as well when I was taking the photos. Was hard to see when he was still alive in the tank because he'd never sit still long enough to get a good look. Whatever it was, it didn't seem contagious, as nobody else in there picked it up. 

On 12/15/2022 at 7:30 AM, Hobbit said:

So based on my very limited experience, I would guess this is a melanistic tumor.

I tend to think so as well. The poor guy didn't act sick and was active even up to the last night he was alive. I hope he didn't suffer too much. 😭