Fish tongue parasite. How should I treat it?

[trido]

My friend has had this angel for about six years and I adopted it a year and a half ago. Its one of the bullies of the tank and is very active but seems to always be gasping for breath and has its lips extended. I'm pretty sure it has a tongue worm but cannot get a great picture of inside of its mouth. I'm wondering if I should leave the fish be, pull it from the tank and try to treat for the worm, or euthanize the fish.

Any suggestions?

Here is a pic from the web for reference.

And here is my fish. Notice in the last picture is appears to also have some gill plate erosion.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Bump!

 

[Kworker]

If its a worm I would try moving it over to a QT system and treating it with prazipro immediately.

 

[matty0206]

Try this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg3IRJz6jZk

Here is some more info:
Tongue-eating Isopod (Cymothoa exigua) - Information on Tongue-eating Isopod - Encyclopedia of Life

Once removed though, the fish will have no tongue. I don't know if it will grow back but it seems like it wouldn't be any worse off without the louse sucking it's blood.

 

[stunreefer]

Are you sure it has a mouth/tongue parasite? You mention it's a bully... many fish will fight mouth to mouth, so it could be damage from a battle. Is the fish still eating?