Is This Columnaris? Or What Is It?

[spongy]

I bought a swordtail for my tank last Saturday, he's been in there fine and getting along with his tank mates, but I've come home from work today and there is this sticking out of him..

This is the best photo I could get, you can see poop coming out and curling toward the front of the body, but there is the long thing sticking out that looks very thick extending towards the tail, from front view it is very thin.

I'm worried, I do not have a quarantine or a hospital tank as I have no other space. I've just got rid of an internal bacteria that cost quite a few fish, I don't need another disease parasite in there

His behaviour is quite normal but he occasionally sits on the wood for a few minutes then goes about his business. He has an appetite and eats as well.

 

[WILDER]

Not quite sure what you mean to be honest. Can't make much out in the pic either.
Can you try and explain in more detail what you actually see please.
Is it coming out of the fish anus?
Does it look like a parasite with a Y shaped tail.

I will also move your thread to livebearers section of the forum as I have never kept swordtail.

 

[spongy]

Not quite sure what you mean to be honest. Can't make much out in the pic either.
Can you try and explain in more detail what you actually see please.
Is it coming out of the fish anus?
Does it look like a parasite with a Y shaped tail.

I will also move your thread to livebearers section of the forum as I have never kept swordtail.

Here you go, I managed to capture a video, it is sticking out of the anus, but does not have a y shaped tail, just looks very out of place and very large

http/static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http/vid660.photobucket.com/albums/uu323/gsmorton/VIDEO0023.mp4

 

[WILDER]

Strange.,
What colour foods do you feed the fish?
It looks like very thick waste to me. Never seen anything like it before.
What do you think it looks like?

 

[WILDER]

I can remember now have some platys that once had very long thick waste.
Try cutting down on feeding for a few days.

 

[spongy]

I have absolutely no idea, it can't be waste as its not round, its flat, and its not breaking off, looks very solid. I'm at a complete loss, I was late this morning, so didn't check.

I feed flake, not a lot either, once a day in the evening, a pellet for my corys and paradise fish. That's it. I've never seen anything like it in my life.

 

[Fintastic!]

It doesn't look like columnaris. Have you checked on the web for similar pics? It does seem unusual. Hope it gets sorted for you.

 

[spongy]

I've tried, but its difficult to know what to search for "alien object in anus" really isn't a good thing to search for.....

I've tried lots of words and browsed 100's if not 1000's of images. Nothing looks anything like this

 

[snazy]

I haven't seen anything like it too. It doesn't look like poop. My platies throw very big ones sometimes but it doesn't stay straight like that. The curled poop on the first picture is separate from this thing sticking out but the poop looks a bit like a worm on the pic, not sure though and don't know what it is. I would research for intestinal worms and pictures of different ones but still it's very very strange looking.

 

[WILDER]

How is the fish. Has the thing sticking out of the fish anus gone?

 

[spongy]

It's still there, same behaviour as normal, but im not quite up to speed on "normal" behaviour as he has only been in my tank 6 days.

I reckon its a worm of some kind. Going to go to my LFS with the video today and see what they think.

And I've woken up this morning to the sudden death of one of my corys.

Is it worth running a course of sera nematol?

 

[WILDER]

I would try the sera nematol. Only wished we knew what we were dealing with.
Never came across anything like it before.

Let us all know how you get on. That's if you don't mind.

Good Luck.

 

[spongy]

I tried posting earlier from my phone but I lost the post due to bad signal.

I went to my LFS today to show them the video that I posted to get some answers and i was shocked at the answer.

I told my regular guy about it showed him the video, he said it was normal!!!!!!! I didn't believe him so he showed me a show tank they have that is full of swordtails, all the males have the same thing, just not as big, it is for want of another word, his penis!!!!!!

It is from what I believe part of his reproductive system, apparently I have a "lyretail" sword, which means it has a double fork, not just the bottom half that extends of the tail, the breeders achieve this by rearing the fish in slower flow/speed water movement, in doing this they can encourage the tail to grow equally top and bottom, but with slower flow the genitals can grow larger too. So as far as I know I just own a well endowed male swordtail....

I have absolutlely no idea if this is true or not, it could be a crock of sh*te for all I know but it is an answer.....

It doesn't explain the Cory death and I'm still nervous about that but I am going to run another internal bacterial med and when done a course of sera nematol to be sure.

 

[snazy]

Wow, never seen a swordtail like that

Are you currently treating with something because corys are super sensitive to certain medications and it can kill them.

 

[spongy]

Not treating with anything at the minute no, last treatment was about a month ago, but thats long gone from my water now, was thinking of running another course of interpet anti internal bacteria in case I didn't quite get it last time.

I know corys like to be in trio's or more and I'm down to two so will have to get a couple more in there soon.