Guppy with mouth fungus

[BreeRelli]

Hello!
I recently adopted a few female guppies. One of them, Cephia, is dealing with some fungus around her mouth.
She is in a 1-gal hospital tank being treated with Kanaplex. Today is the 4th day. I gave the second dose yesterday.
Yesterday she was looking great, back to eating, swimming around, and nearly all the fungus was gone. This morning I woke up and she looked like this, the fungus returned (btw, in photo you're also seeing through the hospital tank to the main aquarium). I'm wondering if any of this could be due to not offering the 2nd dose exactly 48 hours after the first—it was a few hours late.
Tested the water this morning, it reads:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Ph - 7.4
Temperature 81.5-82.5

I have methylene blue and aquarium salt on hand, though I'm not sure if they can be used to help, or how.

Any help appreciated! I want to do everything I can to help her recover.

 

[Fishfunn]

Yesterday she was looking great, back to eating, swimming around, and nearly all the fungus was gone. This morning I woke up and she looked like this, the fungus returned (btw, in photo you're also seeing through the hospital tank to the main aquarium). I'm wondering if any of this could be due to not offering the 2nd dose exactly 48 hours after the first—it was a few hours late.
Tested the water this morning, it reads:

Yes, you need to dose again. When you dont do the recommended doses, you run the risk of the bacteria developing resistance to the medication. I would do the course of doses recommended by Kanaplex which is 3. Using salt and methylene blue would help, but I would do the two more doses of Kanaplex first.

 

[BreeRelli]

Yes, you need to dose again. When you dont do the recommended doses, you run the risk of the bacteria developing resistance to the medication. I would do the course of doses recommended by Kanaplex which is 3. Using salt and methylene blue would help, but I would do the two more doses of Kanaplex first.

Thank you!
I have given her the second dose already. The instructions said every-other day so the next would be tomorrow.

Would you give the salt/methylene blue directly into the water, or as a bath, and how much?

 

[Fishfunn]

Thank you!
I have given her the second dose already. The instructions said every-other day so the next would be tomorrow.

Would you give the salt/methylene blue directly into the water, or as a bath, and how much?

I would wait until after the Kanaplex treatment. Salt and methylene blue would be good together in a QT. I would follow the instructions on the bottle for Methylene Blue. Add 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water. However, follow the instructions provided by the salt manufacturer. It’s important to dissolve the salt completely in a container with aquarium water before adding the solution to the tank.

 

[Colin_T]

The white fluffy stuff on the fish's mouth is Saprolegnia fungus and will not respond to antibiotics like Kanaplex (Kanamycin) because it's a fungus not a bacteria. Saprolegnia fungus gets into open wounds and is not contagious.

Columnaris (aka mouth fungus) is a bacterial infection and appears as white lips. The white spreads over the face and head within a few days and then the fish dies. Columnaris does need antibiotics to treat it.

If you want to treat Saprolegnia fungus, add salt, (see directions below).

The guppy also looks skinny and run down. It could be old or have intestinal worms and or gill flukes. If it doesn't gain weight in the next month I would deworm them. Section 3 of the following link has information about deworming fish.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

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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.

Keep the salt level like this for 1 week.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, 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 or 1/2 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.

 

[Fishfunn]

The white fluffy stuff on the fish's mouth is Saprolegnia fungus and will not respond to antibiotics like Kanaplex (Kanamycin) because it's a fungus not a bacteria. Saprolegnia fungus gets into open wounds and is not contagious.

Columnaris (aka mouth fungus) is a bacterial infection and appears as white lips. The white spreads over the face and head within a few days and then the fish dies. Columnaris does need antibiotics to treat it.

If you want to treat Saprolegnia fungus, add salt, (see directions below).

The guppy also looks skinny and run down. It could be old or have intestinal worms and or gill flukes. If it doesn't gain weight in the next month I would deworm them. Section 3 of the following link has information about deworming fish.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

---------------------

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.

Keep the salt level like this for 1 week.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, 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 or 1/2 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.

Yeah, I missed about the additional dose that was given. I thought she only gave one dose but waited 4 days. I agree about switching treatment with salt if that would eliminate the fungus infection.

 

[BreeRelli]

Thank you for your help.
I added salt earlier this evening, and I'm glad to hear that it is a useful treatment for this. I appreciate learning about Saprolegnia fungus, that makes a lot of sense, actually. I will keep this in mind.
Cephia passed late this night. <3 Cephia

 

[Colin_T]

Do the following any time a fish dies.

Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

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 (if needed) 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.