Hmmm, the site in the link says I have to enter two symptoms and he only has one
Apart from the day I put him in the QT when he hid between the two silk plant bases, he has been behaving normally. Though this morning, the lump looks a bit different, only because I want a good look he is swimming across the back of the tank where I can't see properly. How do fish know when to behave awkwardly
5 mins later.....
Got a good look. People of a nervous disposition, stop reading now.
The lump is maybe a tad smaller, though that might be imagination. As you can see in the middle pic above, the lump is bulging out towards his left side. Sticking out to his right is what looks like a piece of poo; it's coming out of the side of the lump.
He has had one small pellet to eat on Tuesday as references to prolapsed rectum say to fast the fish and it may go back in. The 'poo' is dark red, but I did feed them bloodworm when I got home on Sunday (and it was too late to have a good look at the fish) and I haven't seen him poo since he's been in the QT which is bare bottomed so any poo should be obvious.
Or is it a parasitic infection? There are references to intestinal worms causing red lumps due to the parasites making the intestines bleed. I have seen no evidence of camallanus worms (and I have been looking for them since the two apistos that died were badly infested) though I am well aware that camallanus worms are not the only intestinal parasites.
I can but wait and see. If it's a prolapse it could well go back inside. If it's parasitic worms, he'll get worse.
But I now do have another problem as one of the female Nannacara is now definitely a male. When the one in the QT was in the main tank, he was dominant and the other, female-ish one was subdominant. Now I've removed the dominant male, he is developing. I can't have 2 males and one female in the tank. Seriously Fish says "If there is more than one male in a tank smaller than 48″, the subdominant male may take on the guise of a female" imlpying that a tank needs to be bigger than 48 inches for 2 males - and mine is 42 inches