DG hanging at surface with something coming out of gill. Help

My DG, Giggs has spent the day hanging by the surface in the same area. I have just noticed what looks like a bit of flake food coming out of one of his gills. They haven't been fed flakes for a few weeks now and his behaviour is off. I took a few photos then he hid. He is now in QT. His beely is also large and uneven from above, one side is round the other pointy.

The hanging thing is at the very front of him here, but it is against his body. It looks like a brown, wet, flake.
This is from the other side. Nothing hanging here.
The "flake" is in a similar place on this one.

Sorry, I can't get a clearer photo. Please help!x

ps. I think he is a female but we refer to him as male.x

 

Sorry to bump so soon. The "flake" is getting larger but I still can't get a better photo.x

 

I'm terribly sorry I cannot help, but hopefully someone will notice your thread who has experienced this before.

I'm assuming water parameters are the good? Any pH changes? What have you changed in the tank lately (fish, plants, etc.)?

I'm not much help, but I guess I can try.

 

Parameters are all normal 0,0,5 pH 6.8 the same it always has been, no changes. Thank you.x

 

Hmm... Interesting... The "wet flake" could be a piece of gill tissue which was torn, I suppose... If that is what it is, and it is brown, it probably is already a dead piece of tissue, a fish's gill tissue is generally bright red. (or at least in native fish) The pointy spot... Hmm not sure, maybe he swallowed something? The fact that it all happened at the same time, though, is rather strange. Let me think on this for a while, I may come up with something.

I'm trying my best to be helpful, but it doesn't seem to be working, sorry.

 

Thanks for being there I just needed someone to hear my woes!

It looks like it could be a flake of skin that's falling off from inside his gill. It looks exactly like I imagine it would if he were to try and pass a piece of flake food through his gill whole and it get caught. It is about 6mm diameter that I can see, round and flat (like a flake as opposed to a worm!)

Any help is much appreciated but support is just as appreciated

Maybe you can clear this up; bloating is even, right? if he was bloated he would look evenly plump from above? Should I give him some peas anyway?xx

 

Yes, bloating would not have a sharp point, it would most likely be rounded.

The only thing I can think of that would look like a flake coming out of a gill would be a piece of torn tissue, but then again, I'm not sure. Is there any hard object that could fit in his mouth that he could have swallowed?

I need to give the entire situation further thought, I will get back to you later on what I have come up with.

 

Thank you ever so much for having a think, I can't find anything out about it but I don't really know what I am searching for. I suppose he could have swallowed some gravel. He has some small roman gravel in there, but I have never seen him sifting through the substrate at all.x

 

I thought long and hard about this, and what I have concluded is... Well not much. The only way I can connect everything is he swallowed something sharp and hard and by some act of god, it scraped against his gill, and then went down to his tummy. That is extremely unlikely though, and I'm not sure how it would happen.

I'm just not sure what more to say, because even if what I said is the case, there is no "cure" I suppose just keep his water in pristine condition (which, by your water parameters, I can tell you are) and dose with vitachem? I am at a loss for a logical explanation for all this, sorry....

 

I read it too, just have literally no idea what it could be. have you tried salt baths with him?

 

He is hanging at the surface, not moving around. He is usually quite scared of me but hasn't flinched when I have gone near to take photos which is very unusual for him. The "flake" is getting fatter and larger as time goes on. I haven't tried anything bar keeping his water pristine. I forgot to include an above shot of him and here is also a blurry picture from before but you can see it is quite a large chunk of something;


And here are some pictures I have just taken.


His tank hasn't had any flake foor for weeks so I very much doubt it's that. I'm really worried about him

Thank you for all your support, it really means a lot!x

EDIT: apologies for the bitty water, I've just changed it

 

The tissue is now fluffy, he is pooping stringy stuff and flashing. This doesn't look good I will look into collumnaris, thanks.x

EDIT: using Wikipedia it sounds pretty bad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columnaris

The thing from his gill looks like the photo except on Giggs it's protruding from his gill. I also think I am beginning to see it forming on his other gill. It has been 48 hours since I noticed the symptoms, I fear if it is columnaris, it is too late for treatment.

I am going to assume it is columnaris and treat it as so, I can't just leave him and I have no idea what else it could be. As he is a labyrinth breather I just want to double check he will be okay in a methylene blue bath and being treated with kanaplex? thank you all for everything here.x

 

In the last two hours I have given him a methylene blue dip and dosed his tank with kanaplex. The growth has doubled in size and is massively fleshy now. He didn't even struggle when I netted him to give him his bath. Poor guy

 

He is currently in a 10G QT alone, he isn't eating. I tried feeding medicated food but he wouldn't take it, I attempted tropical flakes with garlic guard and kanaplex, he ignored it completely even though I target fed him. The growth is continuing to get larget and "fluffier" it is about the size of a pea now and almost rounded and fuzzy not flat anymore I fear I am loosing him. It's 01.40am over here so I must go to bed now the little one's settled and let Giggs get some rest, I'll be checking on him first thing.x

 

In all really hundreds of threads about ill DG's I've never seen this. Sorry I can't be of any help.

 

To confuse matters more, I have woken up and the growth is gone. His other gill looks like it's beginning to go the same way though. His behaviour is still that of a very sick fish so I'm not holding out too much hope. Fingers crossed methylene blue and kanaplex will cure whatever this is!

Thanks again for your support guys.xx