Odd Sympton On Bl Ruby Barb

[fshchk]

Funny, as long as I've been keeping fish I've never seen a perfectly healthy looking and acting fish with a mouth frozen open.

My Black Ruby Barbs are big, fat and happy, maybe 3-4 years old. Housed in an 80 gal tall well planted community tank. They are beautiful, especially the males. I was watching them eat the other day and noticed that one female has a frozen jaw and her mouth doesn't close. She just swims around with it frozen open. She seem otherwise healthy. Does anyone have a clue about this???

 

[fshchk]

Do you think fish get lock jaw? I know they can get TB. . .

 

[Lateral Line]

"Lock Jaw" as in the human condition, is a common name for Tetanus, which is an infection with Clostridium tetani bacteria, an very very common bacteria worldwide. Lock Jaw is just one of many symptoms of this infection, typically many, indeed most muscle groups are affected and the body can become totally rigid with spasms. (BTW, true fish TB is a different although closely related bacterium form Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the most common human disease causing pathogen. Humans infected with "fish TB" show very different symptoms from classic TB).

I would suggest that although I've not read about fish being infected with this pathogen it would not suprise me. I think more likely is that the fishes jaw mechanism is jammed. It has been discussed here before, several times. In some cases, it is a congenital defect, in others, it "appeared" suddenly.

With a congenital defect, there is little to be done. There are two schools of thought with a dislocation or whatever that has suddenly appeared, both have been discussed here before. One is to leave it alone and feed things that are to large to simply swallow, requiring the fish to "sort itself out". The other involves netting the fish and closing the mouth, risking whatever injuries that may entail.