Reference to white mouth

[crs1945]

In a previous thread I ask about cotton ( white )mouth , a fungus/columnaris disease. If the lips of the fish are really involved, does the deformity ever heal or does the fish remain deformed. Reason being " When do you know if it's safe to put the fish back in the display tank"
Chuck

 

[Gingimaru]

i had a tetra with what we thought was a fungal infection that we treated with Interpet anti fungal and fin rot medication. the tetra had like a white lump on his lip (looked like a coldsore i guess) and after treatement that bit of his mouth never grew back.

thats just my experience though. it may not have even been cotton mouth... but it certainly seemed like it

 

[jlk]

The bacteria responsible for columnaris destroy living tissue. Once treated & healed, the remaining scar tissue may not regrow properly or even at all. As long as the fish is happy & healthy, this is nothing other than a visual defect.

 

[BBradbury]

Reference to Mouth Fungus

In a previous thread I ask about cotton ( white )mouth , a fungus/columnaris disease. If the lips of the fish are really involved, does the deformity ever heal or does the fish remain deformed. Reason being " When do you know if it's safe to put the fish back in the display tank"
Chuck

Hello crs...

I've read about this disease. Livebearers are most likely to be infected. The condition isn't a fungus, but a slime bacteria. Fish pathogens are best controlled by adding small amounts of standard aquarium salt to the tank replacement water. A little heat, raising the water temperature to 82 degrees, will also help.

I add a little more than a teaspoon of standard aquarium salt to every 5 gallons of my water change water and my fish are very healthy.

Try the salt and heat treatment for a week to 10 days and I believe you'll see improvement.

Keeping the water pure by changing out half the tank volume every week and vacumming the gravel where possible will keep the tank chemistry stable and that's the most important thing you can do for your aquarium.

B

 

[HeatherW]

BBradbury - I read just the opposite! yes it is a bacterial infection, not a true fungus, however do NOT raise the temp. the columnaris "bug" grows in temps over 80F and the reccommended treatment is 1TBSP salt/5 gallons water, temps between 74-76F and a gram negative treatment. the columnaris is gram neg and must be treated with gram neg. (NOT erythromycin which is gram positive) the treatment using erythromycin is old information and they now know that you need to treat as stated above. you can use minocycline or kanamycin sulfate to treat
I have a thread going about this right now..."white spots on rainbow"

good to know about the "scar still remaining" jlk! thanks for all the help!!

 

[Mumma.of.two]

BBradbury - I read just the opposite! yes it is a bacterial infection, not a true fungus, however do NOT raise the temp. the columnaris "bug" grows in temps over 80F and the reccommended treatment is 1TBSP salt/5 gallons water, temps between 74-76F and a gram negative treatment. the columnaris is gram neg and must be treated with gram neg. (NOT erythromycin which is gram positive) the treatment using erythromycin is old information and they now know that you need to treat as stated above. you can use minocycline or kanamycin sulfate to treat
I have a thread going about this right now..."white spots on rainbow"

good to know about the "scar still remaining" jlk! thanks for all the help!!

This is correct. You definitely don't want to raise the temperature with columnaris.
My LFS has a serpae tetra that has survived columnaris. It is missing its entire mouth/lip area. It is in a display tank and is fat and healthy so it must eat ok.

 

[BBradbury]

BBradbury - I read just the opposite! yes it is a bacterial infection, not a true fungus, however do NOT raise the temp. the columnaris "bug" grows in temps over 80F and the reccommended treatment is 1TBSP salt/5 gallons water, temps between 74-76F and a gram negative treatment. the columnaris is gram neg and must be treated with gram neg. (NOT erythromycin which is gram positive) the treatment using erythromycin is old information and they now know that you need to treat as stated above. you can use minocycline or kanamycin sulfate to treat
I have a thread going about this right now..."white spots on rainbow"

good to know about the "scar still remaining" jlk! thanks for all the help!!

Hello Heather...

Thanks for the update. My information is apparently outdated. The reasoning behind the combination of heat, a little salt and a lot of pure treated water was as a general healing regimen for any fish ailment.

Fungus is often a result of an injury or infection and I've read most of those are helped with the above three.

Thanks again.

B