Lymphocystis is a non lethal virus disease that can infect most aquarium fish. The disease is rare and most aquarist will never have any problems with it. The disease is caused by a virus and can only infect your fish if it is introduced to your aquarium. The risk of introducing this virus as well as other diseases can be reduced by keeping new fish in quarantine for a few weeks before adding them to the general population. It is also recommended to never add waters from other aquariums to your aquarium as this can introduce disease if you are unlucky. The Lymphocystis virus and other fish diseases can also be introduced with live food and avoiding feeding live food or only feeding home cultivated live food can therefore further reduce the risk of Lymphocystis and other diseases.
The Lymphocystis virus causes small white swellings on fins and bodies of infected fish. There is no cure for this disease but most fish recover from the disease by themselves. This makes Lymphocystis one of the least serious diseases that your fish can be infected by. Your main concern if you discover Lymphocystis in your aquarium should be containment as there is no cure. Move all sick fish to recuperation/hospital tanks. Keep the fish there until they have recovered 100%. It is true that the disease usually isn't fatal and that the fish usually recover but this doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to contain the disease as the temporarily lowered health status of the infected fish can open the door for other more dangerous diseases.
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