Possible mouth rot/ columnaris on platy

Hadrien_H

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Hi everyone! I noticed this morning that one of my platys in my 75g community tank has started to breathe way more than the other platys are, its mouth is almost always open. I observed the platy and noticed that it looked like it had a very small cotton-like film inside its mouth lining, which looked like columnaris. It also seems that part of its upper lip is folded back or missing. None of the other fish are displaying any symptoms of disease or infection. I have dealt with Columnaris once before and was able to heal all the affected fish quickly using jungle fungus clear fizz tabs and Kanaplex. Does the platy definitely have mouth rot/ columnaris? I have provided photos of the affected platy (first photo) and another one that is definitely healthy for comparison.

Thanks in advance :)
 

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No it does not have mouth fungus (Columnaris).

It has an infection in the mouth, throat and sinus area. Salt might help but if it doesn't, you will need something stronger that treats bacteria and fungus. But try salt first. If there's no improvement after a couple of days with salt, add something stronger.

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Before you add salt or use medications in the fish tank, do the following:
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket (2 litres/ half a gallon) of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.
 
Thank you for your advice! I used a magnetic scraper to remove the algae from the inside of the glass. However, I've noticed that the platy has been lethargic, swimming slowly above the sandbed in the same corner of the tank for almost two days. Upon closer observation, it appears the infection has worsened and now resembles cotton mouth. Although I initially was unsure if it cotton mouth, more of its lip has deteriorated and there's an increased amount of white cottony substance. Its mouth is constantly open, but none of the other fish are showing any symptoms.

Yesterday, I added one dose of Kanaplex and Jungle Fungus Clear to the water as a precaution, but the condition has only worsened since then. I'm using an air pump. I hesitate to use salt because I have many high-tech plants like pearlweed and red rotalas. My past experience with salt resulted in almost half of my plant's loss within a week. If all else fails, I will resort to using salt. I've attached photos of the platy for your reference.
 

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Update: I've lowered the tank temperature from 80f to 75f gradually since the afternoon to slow down the growth of harmful bacteria and reduce stress. To make the condition easier to understand, it looks like whatever illness it has has eaten off a part of its lips. I am planning to do a 30% wc tomorrow and redose the kanaplex and jungle fungus clear fizz tabs. Also, I forgot to note that I did follow your instructions did a 75% water change and siphoned any waste on the surface of the sand before I medicated yesterday. Thanks again for your advice!
 
Update, the mouth rot has only gotten worse, even with the medications in the tank. So I decided to move the platy to a 5.5g quarantine tank, which I will treat it with 2 heaped tablespoons and maintain a temp of 75F. All the other fish in the main tank seem to have no symptoms and are all healthy.

Question: Should I stop treatment in the main tank and remove the medications since ive removed the platy from it and none of the other fish are affected?
Thanks in advance!
 
If KanaPlex is not working, which treats gram-negative bacteria, then I would try Fritz Maracyn (erythromycin), which treats gram-positive bacteria.

Usually, I would first do a Methylene Blue bath for 30 minutes and remember to reacclimate him back to the QT afterwards. After the MB bath, I would treat with antibiotics.
 

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