Angel mouth gunk

[Ali448]

Hi. My 8 yr old common angelfish has a growth of something on one side of his mouth. It's whitish-gray, soft looking clumps. When I first noticed it, he could hardly open his mouth.
The 55gal tank parameters are all within normal range. No other fish have symptoms. I've been treating with Melafix for 6 days.
How do I get the stuff off his mouth? Do I use my finger, a Qtip? I've never had to catch my angel before, I'm afraid of hurting him.
Thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

[Autumnsky]

One of the most important things you can do is make sure that your tank water is in tip top shape. Keep doing frequent water changes.

Do you know what your tank parameters are? Are you using test strips or liquid test, or fish store testing?

How often do you do water changes now? If it has been a while say longer than a couple weeks start off with smaller amounts say 25% AM and PM and get the water freshened up.

The cotton patch is possibly fungal, is there any other Angelfish and any mating or fighting behavior?

It is possibly Columnaris. There are several varieties, a slowing killing, days and days before another death, lightning fast killer variant kinda wipes out a tank in a few days (doesn't sound like yours) also heard of a and quick one sort of in the middle.

Does the fish seem to have and medium grey/whitish to brown/grey patches usually found at the top/dorsal fin or gill/head area?

Getting some good fresh water into the aquarium and removing many particles of waste and old fish food is important. If you may have been over feeding or using a fish food with a bunch of fillers in it, overcrowding, fish tankmates which might stress out their mates, or just not getting as many pwc's done causes stress and can compromise the fish's ability to ward off illness and they can get sick more easily.