Swollen inflamed gill on a pleco. Please advise.

[david yurik]

I was given a pleco by a friend whos tank went down due to a power loss. The only thing that made it through the cold was his pleco. He asked me to take care of it until he got another tank up and going. I 've had this guy now for 3 months without issue until about 2 weeks ago. The gill on one side seemed to get inflamed and is sticking out a bit. The other gill is completely normal. Here is the pic.



I got on MFK and found some gill posts / threads and one of the first questions is usually about water parameters. I have been lazy about my water changes and did a quick check. I couldn't believe the results were so bad. Nitrate was off the chart and there seemed to be traces of ammonia. The pH tube was the high pH bottle and I didn't do the low so all I can say for sure is that pH is below 7.4.



I immediately did a gravel vac and 50% water change. I will keep up on changes daily until the nitrates are back down to < 20. My tap water is 0 so it can be done if I just stay on it. He shares the 45g tank with 3 fancy goldfish. There are a few decorations and 3 live plants.

My question is what else can I do to get this guy back to health? I've bought all kinds of food to make sure he was eating something. He seems to like the cucumber and omega one algea pellets. I can move some fish around and isolate him in a 55 breeder with a fluval 205 ( seachem matrix and foam pads only / no carbon ). He is 8 ish years old and I would feel horrible if he dies on my watch. Please let me know what else I can do. I will follow up with water parameters every couple of days. Thanks in advance.

Dave

 

[squint]

Well, when you see redness and inflammation in fish your first suspect is a bacterial infection. It could be bacterial gill disease (yes, that's the actual name) which, like most bacterial infections in fish, are caused by Gram negative bacteria. If it was my fish I would put it in a hospital tank and grab the kanamycin off the shelf. One paper recommends potassium permanganate:

http://www.glfc.org/pubs/SpecialPubs/sp83_2/pdf/chap20.pdf

A long shot is that it's a granuloma caused by mycobacteria but it's hard to tell from most pictures.

 

[david yurik]

Thanks squint. I will lean towards the hospital tank and keep some updates coming.

Dave

 

[Kivstev]

This looks very similar to a gill tumor that a Boesmani Rainbow of mine had. Apparently it is caused by thyroid issues? Something to keep in mind in case the fish doesn't respond to antibiotics. I'll see if I can find the picture of it.

Found it:

 

[david yurik]

i am in the middle of the second water change in two days. 50% yesterday and 50% today. i will check the nitrate tonight after the tank has run for a few hours and hopefully observe a decline in the reading. here is another pic i was able to get yesterday. i also ordered a few things for the 125 so i should be able to isolate this guy in a 55 breeder in about 7 to 10 days.

dave

 

[david yurik]

well i got the hospital tank set up and used only water from the pleco / goldfish tank. its a 5 gallon with a small AC30 or 150 HOB. there is no carbon and only the mechanical media and some nitro chips in a bag. i aslo put in an air stone. the water was crystal clear just like the main tank yesterday when i put the pleco in. i also tossed in 3 small omega one algea wafers. my question is do you think the cloudy is from the wafers? the treatment says 5 days so i don't plan on keeping in here very long. should i be worried about the cloudy water? how do you like that 5 gallon stand i threw together?!?!?

here is the stuff the local fish store recommended.

here is a shot of the 50 breeder just for the heck of it.

 

[oscaroo]

weird. never herd about it or seen it. nice 55!

 

[david yurik]

well i did the treatment for the 5 days and nothing happened. i put him in the 55 about 11 days ago and its slowly growing. one of the first questions the store asked was if it's a tumor. how the heck should i know. after the anit-biotic did nothing i'm thinking its a tumor. i will let him go until it looks like hes about done or starts swimming upside down then i will have to make the fish cicle. i hate doing that. i will try and get another pic but he likes to stay in the bubble curtain in the back of the 55.

dave

 

[david yurik]

weird. never herd about it or seen it. nice 55!

thanks oscaroo. i just sit there after feeding and watch them swim around. i picked up my rocks yesterday for the 120. before long they will all get a much bigger home.

dave

 

[squint]

If it's mycobacteria, not a lot of antibiotics will have an effect. Erythromycin and minocycline (Maracyn I & II) had no effect nor did doxycycline. I eventually used TMP-sulfa and kanamycin. It took several weeks of treatment for it to start shrinking.