Possible cottonmouth?

[tymtan21]

Tank size: 29 gallon
pH: 7-7.2
ammonia:0
nitrite:0
nitrate:15
kH: currently don’t have test
gH: see above
tank temp: 75-75.2 F

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):
White around mouth area, hard to tell if it’s fuzzy or not because they move around so quickly

Volume and Frequency of water changes:
8-10 gals, weekly or biweekly depending on nitrate increases

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:
Do all in one Ferts count?

Tank inhabitants: 6 Marbled Hatchets, 8 Red Phantom Tetras, 10 Pygmy Cories, 6 Venezuela Cories

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):
The Venezuela Cories just got out of QT

Exposure to chemicals: Nothing but the Ferts,

Digital photo (include if possible):

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

It's a bit hard to tell due to blurry pics, but the fish can get bruised lips from swimming into the glass or jumping out of the water and hitting the coverglass. This is more likely to occur in small tanks and with newly added fish. Having said this, Columnaris is extremely dangerous and kills fish rapidly.

How long has the fish had the white mouth?

Monitor it over a couple of days and if it gets worse rapidly and spreads over the mouth, jaw and face, then it is Columnaris and you need to treat asap with anti-biotics.

If it doesn't spread and the fish has a white puffy lip for a week or two, then it is bruising from bumping into something. You don't need to treat bruising with medications, just keep doing water changes and gravel cleans and it should heal up by itself.

 

[tymtan21]

Thanks for the quick reply

Sorry about the blurry pics, they’re still skittish (and quick) little guys. I’ve had them for a couple of weeks, but they’ve only been in the community tank for a couple of days, and the white areas started to appear after adding them in. I’ll keep an eye on them for now. Would there be any behavioral ways to tell the difference? Like would fish with columnaris not eat or clamp up?

 

[Colin_T]

Make sure you have some floating plants in the tank and a picture on the back of the aquarium to help calm them down. Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) is the best plant for them.

Fish with mouth fungus (Columnaris) will usually stop eating and die within 24-48 hours of showing the white lips.

Fish with bruised lips will continue to eat and the white mouth does not spread or get worse.

 

[FishGuest5123]

It actually looks like at least 2 have it, possibly three. Is this correct or is it the pic? If several have it then I would treat immediately with Furan-2 and Kanaplex together. The reason for fast treatment is because once it becomes internal, it is almost impossible to cure. Dosing schedule is as follows:
Day 1: add Kanaplex and Furan-2 according to pig directions.
Day 2: 25% w/c and Furan-2 only
Day 3: Kanaplex and Furan-2
Day 4: 25% e/c and Furan 2
Day 5: Kanaplex and Furan-2
Day 6: Do nothing
Day 7: water Change
You can also do daily methylene blue dips if fuzz gets too be too much. I hope you don’t need this but keep us posted. Normally, the whole tank catches the disease. It is extremely contagious. If you have other tanks, don’t cross contaminate with nets, vacs, etc. Goid luck!

You can repeat this one time if fish are improving. If not, I would euthanize with Clove oil at this point.

 

[tymtan21]

They’ve been eating pretty verociously the last couple of days since showing symptoms, and it definitely hasn’t gotten visually worse, though the amount of fish showing signs went from 2 to 3. I’m wondering if i should play a safer than sorry method, or go half in with medicated frozens mixed with kanaplex and focus and save the BB for a little longer? Maybe it’s a slower strain? (Sorry this keeps dragging out)

 

[FishGuest5123]

You’re asking the wrong person. I got stung too bad with Columnaris. Losing all my sorority was heartbreaking. I spent a fortune on that tank. Better get the advice of others on this one if you want to try another route. I still pray that columnaris is not what you’re dealing with. Good luck!

 

[Colin_T]

The fish are nervous and skittish. They are also hatchetfish, which are probably wild caught and confined to a small tank. The white bit hasn't spread.
This would suggest it is bruising caused by bumping into things (glass sides and covers).

-------------------------
Do not add medications to an aquarium unless you know there is a disease.
Do not use anti-biotics unless you know there is a bacterial infection and it hasn't responded to normal fish medications. Improper use or misuse of anti-biotics can cause drug resistant bacteria that kill people, animals, fish, birds and reptiles.

-------------------------
If you want to reduce the chance of diseases occurring in the tank, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or two. This will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and lessen the chance of the fish developing a disease.