Is this cottonmouth or an injury?

[hecurcia]

I have a very territorial cherry barb that might be stressing other fish. She was fine last night. Thanks.

 

[hecurcia]

Forgot to add a picture.

 

[hecurcia]

Ah, I fed bloodworms yesterday, maybe some other fish took a bite? There is another platy that has the same symptoms.

 

[pip walters]

Looks like bacterial mouthrot. You need an antibacterial treatment or antibiotics. It is quite common in livebearers and needs swift treatment

 

[hecurcia]

Thanks. They are going to a qt tank. Those fish were born in my tank two years ago. First time that I have seen it.

 

[hecurcia]

There is certainly something wrong in my main tank. Another platy has a white mouth and a serape tetra also is showing signs of a disease. I probably did not quarantine my new fish long enough.

 

[hecurcia]

Serpae minor tetra

 

[anibis]

I just lost a new platy to a particularly aggressive strain of columnaris (flexibacter). It started with a white speck on her upper lip. Within 24 hours it spread to the rest of her mouth, and she was dead shortly thereafter. She was stressed before the white speck appeared, so that may have had an affect on why she got it, and why she died so fast.

I'm not an expert, but from what I read you need to treat with a gram negative anti-biotic. Maracyn-2 used to be very effective, but some strains of flexibacter are now resistant to it. The packaging on Maracyn is wrong. It treats gram positive bacteria, and will have no effect on flexibacter. However, it is best to use both in case of secondary infection.

Furan-2 + Seachem KanaPlex is most effective. I know Jacks Pets carries Furan-2 for $9.99, not sure if they have that store in your part of the state. I was unable to find KanaPlex locally, it's best to order it online to have on hand in case of infection.

These antibiotics will most likely kill your cycle, so bear that in mind.

Triple Sulfa MAY work early on, and your cycle will likely survive although it may be damaged a bit. Triple Sulfa did nothing for my platy.

Using aquarium salt at the rate of 1 level tbs/5 gal may help as well. I'm not sure what you have in your tank though, some fish cannot tolerate any salt.

If it is columnaris, it's very contagious. Anything that touched the tank water (syphon's, nets, etc...) may be infected. Keep that in mind if you have multiple tanks.

Like I said, I'm not an expert. I've only had columnaris once, and the fish died too quickly to treat aggressively. This is just what I gathered during a marathon google session. Maybe a more experienced member who has successfully treated can help you out a bit more.

 

[hecurcia]

Yes, I plan to get marycin 2 tomorrow. Researching around the web made believe that columnaris seems to be the prognosis. I lost a platy today in the morning who had her tail torn a bit, perhaps by the very aggressive cherry barb. Besides that, she was fine. Kind of strange that all of the sudden I get this disease. Perhaps the new fish brought it but it has only been two days since I added the newcomers.

 

[anibis]

Hopefully the Maracyn-2 works for you, some have had excellent results with it. Just depends on what strain you have going through your tank.

Some say columnaris is present in every aquarium, just waiting for a stressed fish that it can grab ahold of. Once a fish is infected it spreads like wildfire. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but it seems a lot of fish diseases are like that.

 

[hecurcia]

I have read that too, that is present in every aquarium. To be honest, one cherry barb has been terrorizing all the platy, the neons and Serpae tetras. I was about to put the platy with my GBR but that guy is worse . Well, I will see what I can do for them. Right now, I have four in a qt tank, I have a fishless 20 gallon tank that is a mess, at least I have some options if something goes terribly wrong. Thanks again.