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Alright guys, I need some help. I have been obsessively searching and I can't find anything resembling what I'm dealing with.
Coza is about 2-3 years old, he shares his tank with Tezzi (about 1.5 years). it's a 20 gal, tank. Substrate: sand. I quarantined Coza and have had him off and on in my fridge for about 3 weeks. Originally we thought this was a fungus, because my friend found some white "fuzzies" around his gill while we were on vacation. He was having difficulty eating as well.
We did the salt baths for about a week, the fuzzies are gone, but now we have discovered (behind the gills and under the fuzzies) a hard... "stem" or growth? I gently used a q-tip to see if it might be just a large fungus, but it is hard, so I stopped doing salt baths and took him to the vet.
Vet has no idea what I'm dealing with, but assumes it could be cancer, an abscess, or granuloma. I can't afford a biopsy, because her only option is to ship it to California and the whole thing would be around $700... To be honest, I'm not sure I even trust this vet, but it's the only exotic vet I could find in my area. I decided to try antibiotics/anti-inflammatory option... I have to give Coza an injection (5mg) of Meloxicam (metacam) everyday for five days. And an injection of Ceftazidime (100mg) every three days.
I was going to wait to post everything to see if this works, but I woke up this morning after giving him his second dose of Ceftazidime and his fourth dose of Metacam and he looks very dark. His gills are like blood red now and now I'm panicking because I don't know if this is normal.
one picture is of Coza's anomaly like 4 days ago, two are from today (where he is really pink/red)
Any advice would be super helpful!
Coza is about 2-3 years old, he shares his tank with Tezzi (about 1.5 years). it's a 20 gal, tank. Substrate: sand. I quarantined Coza and have had him off and on in my fridge for about 3 weeks. Originally we thought this was a fungus, because my friend found some white "fuzzies" around his gill while we were on vacation. He was having difficulty eating as well.
We did the salt baths for about a week, the fuzzies are gone, but now we have discovered (behind the gills and under the fuzzies) a hard... "stem" or growth? I gently used a q-tip to see if it might be just a large fungus, but it is hard, so I stopped doing salt baths and took him to the vet.
Vet has no idea what I'm dealing with, but assumes it could be cancer, an abscess, or granuloma. I can't afford a biopsy, because her only option is to ship it to California and the whole thing would be around $700... To be honest, I'm not sure I even trust this vet, but it's the only exotic vet I could find in my area. I decided to try antibiotics/anti-inflammatory option... I have to give Coza an injection (5mg) of Meloxicam (metacam) everyday for five days. And an injection of Ceftazidime (100mg) every three days.
I was going to wait to post everything to see if this works, but I woke up this morning after giving him his second dose of Ceftazidime and his fourth dose of Metacam and he looks very dark. His gills are like blood red now and now I'm panicking because I don't know if this is normal.
one picture is of Coza's anomaly like 4 days ago, two are from today (where he is really pink/red)
Any advice would be super helpful!
![IMG_0439[1].jpg](/data/attachments/39/39943-e495a56cb0dc0f0462315ba4258b0e3c.jpg)
![IMG_0441[1].jpg](/data/attachments/39/39944-ced6caeeff624aaa8818b130aab44fc3.jpg)