White/clear bubble like growth

[Princess1982]

HI everyone.

I have just come back from a two week holiday to find that two of my neon tetra have bubble like growths around their mouths. They are clear/ white in colour and are keeping the fish from closing their mouths. One of the guppies has also lost a lot of colour.

I suspect this was caused by the feeding block I left in the tank and it has polluted the water. It was quite a large one and there was still 50% of it left when I came home. The remaining food block was literally covered in snails from my recent snail outbreak (I added another post about this). I have quickly removed the leftover food and vacuumed the gravel. Changed about 50% of the water and have started a course of Esha 2000 as I know that covers most bases.

Half hour later the tetra are all grouped together at the bottom of the tank and the two guppies are together at the top of the tank. Could this be a reaction to the Esha? My guppies don't normally hang around the top.

Do you think this is some kind of fungus because of the food or lack of lighting (I turned all the lights off when I was away). Any advice would be much appreciated.

Water parameters
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 40 (normal for this tank)
Nitrite 0

Thanks!

 

[rmiller]

I'm not familiar with esha, but I would suspect an issue with your nitrates. If that 40 ppm is after a 50% water change then it was 80 before that. Most agree that 20 ppm or less is best. I would do another 50% water change to bring that level down even more.

 

[Princess1982]

I am certainly going to do a lot of big water changes to keep the water crystal clear. But getting lower nitrates is impossible where I live unless I add chemicals which i hate doing unless necessary. It comes out of the tap just over 20! All of my tanks are fully cycled and are around 40. Reading was taken prior to water change and treatment with Esha.

Does anyone have any idea about these growths? Are they blisters or some sort of fungus? I rest about gas bubble syndrome which is caused by adding water too quickly??

Many thanks.

 

[dwayne.aycock]

Sounds like a fungus to me. General cure may help along with an increase in temp. Remove carbon from filters, after 3 days do a 50% WC and treat with general cure again. This definitely sounds like a fungus to me. I had something similar and I treated with GC.
Good luck!
D

 

[Princess1982]

This is exactly what I had planned to do so very glad you suggested this. You have put my mind at rest! And glad you had a positive outcome so fingers crossed for my fish too.

Thanks so much !

 

[Princess1982]

I have now done 2 x 3 day treatments of Esha and there has been no improvement. Does anyone have any idea what this bubble like growth could be or any success in treating it? Thanks

 

[Fishfur]

What is the active ingredient/s in Esha ? Never heard of it, might not be available here. A bit of research offered a few ideas. Possibly fish lice, but if so, fish would be flashing and you'd see the lice moving.
Could be mouth fungus or columnaris. Maracyn was suggested as one possible treatment. I'd look them both up and see what's available in your area. Might also be from fish fighting each other, though perhaps not so likely.

I might suggest adding live plants to help use up those nitrates. Though levels up to 50 ppm are said to be safe, most of us do try to keep it a lot lower than that. If your tap water is high to start with, plants will help use it up. You can stick to easy low light types that don't need much in the way of feeding or high lighting.

Anubias and java fern or mosses, anacharis, guppy grass, all would assist to remove nitrate. Duckweed, though not everyone ones likes it, is a great nitrate sucker. You can just scoop it out and dump it when it grows too thick. Frogbit or watersprite are also good nitrate suckers that grow floating.

 

[Princess1982]

Main ingredients are ethacridine lactate , copper sulphate and proflavine hemisulphate . On my 3rd round of treatment and there has been no improvement in the bump at all. The fish still seems healthy and eating but this growth is now as big as it's head!

 

[Princess1982]

I've just checked my tank and one of my guppies has died!