White fungus on guppy

[August Vukosovich]

Hello. I have a sick guppy. Four days ago I noticed she had very white lips. I did a large water change and watched her and the other fish for 24 hours. The next morning when I woke up I noticed that her mouth looks swollen and still white. I decided to start treatment with Marycin 2 since its usually bacteria and not fungus. I also added some aquarium salt. This treatment saved my lasy guppy that had this a couple months ago.

It's not working. Day 4 and her lips are so swollen she cant eat. It looks like she had white cotton on her mouth. She wants to eat and is trying and it is heartbreaking to watch her because her mouth is blocked. Is this fungus or a bacteria?

Thanks!

 

[August Vukosovich]

I tries to upload a pic but it said it is too large. From the side it is white. If I look at her from the front it looks pink but I am thinking that it's a sore. I'm guessing she became injured somehow. No other fish have this in the four days since I found it so Im guessing she was injured than an opportunistic infection secondary to the injury took hold. It's almost too late but if it's fungus I can run out first thing in the morning and get some meds.

 

[Colin_T]

If the pictures are too big for the website, set the camera's resolution to its lowest setting and take some more. The lower resolution will make the images smaller and they should fit on this website. Check the pictures on your pc and find a couple that are clear and show the problem, and post them here. Make sure you turn the camera's resolution back up after you have taken the pics otherwise all your pictures will be small.

 

[guppybreeder1]

Very common infection for guppies to get tbh, best thing I’ve found to get rid is a chloramine T dip in a bucket for about 20 minutes with an air stone in there

 

[Kayla]

Try E.M erythromycin I use it on my tank when my fish had fungus and it works

 

[Guppylover3x]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Is there any chance you could provide us with your parameters?

 

[FishGuest5123]

Very common infection for guppies to get tbh, best thing I’ve found to get rid is a chloramine T dip in a bucket for about 20 minutes with an air stone in there

What is a chloramine T dip?

 

[FishGuest5123]

Read on Columnaris and see if it sounds like your fish has those symptoms. We really can’t advise without a pic.

 

[Colin_T]

Try E.M erythromycin I use it on my tank when my fish had fungus and it works

Erythromycin is an anti-biotic that only treats bacterial infections and does nothing to treat fungal, viral or any other type of infection..

Anti-biotics should only be used on known bacterial infections that have not responded to normal fish medications.

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If the fish has mouth fungus (Columnaris), then it needs treating asap. Columnaris is a bacterial infection and often referred to as mouth fungus, however it is not a fungus.

Columnaris usually kills fish within 24-48 hours of them developing the white lips. This might be Columnaris or something else.

Post a picture of the sick fish.
Make sure your water is good.
Do a 75% water change, gravel clean the substrate, wipe the inside of the glass down, clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.
Add some salt.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres 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, 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 will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.

 

[August Vukosovich]

Thank you everyone for your help. I'm sorry I haven't gotten back on. I had an overnight wedding to attend to. When i came back this morning she looked a lot better after leaving EM Erythromycin and aquarium salt in the tank and was eating. I was so happy. Then, about 8 hours later she is now getting this clear looking very large fuzz around her mouth. I'm confused because it looks very different than what she had in the previous days. It's been a week so I don't think it's culmanaris. I don't know how to change the resolution on my camera but I will look up how to do this if my poor girl is still alive in the morning. I'm really leaning towards fungus now.

My parameters are ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 10. My water is moderately hard, ph is 7.4, and temperature is 74.

Thanks again.

 

[August Vukosovich]

Oh, I have a good description of the fuzz. You know when you put new driftwood in a tank and it can get that strange looking clear fuzz? It looks EXACTLY like that. Like you can see through it. Before today, it looked more opaque and was causing her mouth to swell open. Now she can't eat again and swims towards the food trying to eat.

 

[FishGuest5123]

There are slow strains of columnaris, I’m sorry to say. I had fish last for almost a month with it. The entire tank ended up dying. Eleven fish in all. If fungus or fuzz keeps coming back, I would euthanize the fish. I’m sorry but I let mine suffer much longer than I should have.

 

[August Vukosovich]

So I put the second dose of erythromycin in last night before bed. Again, she is better and eating again. I'm glad but worried at the same time. Nobody else in my aquarium has these symptoms. If it was culmanaris you would think other fish would be ill by now. It's been days. I believe I know what happened. I put repashy on driftwood in once a week for my otots, they love it. The guppies love it too. I used a new piece of wood this time and the next morning I noticed her lips were slightly white. I saw there was a really sharp edge on the wood and I'm guessing she injured her mouth on that part sucking the food off and an opportunistic infection set in. This would make the most sense since I have 9 other guppies and about 30 fry of varying ages that are symptom free. If she gets the fuzz again I will take her out and put her in QT and treat for bacteria and fungus since I don't want to put that many meds in my main tank.

 

[FishGuest5123]

That could very well be it! If the Erythromycin doesn’t work, get the big guns out and Get some Kanaplex and Furan-2 and treat with both according to directions. Good luck!

 

[Robert Geelan]

Hi! I see you might have the problem I experienced as a beginner, However, I'm not sure.

Is there just one big splotch or is there a bunch of small white specs. If there Are lots of specs then your fish has ich.

My fish had ich a couple of years ago and it was deadly. The disease soon spread until every fish that had scales had it. I did notice that. it did not show on my albino cory catfish, and albino bristle nose pleco however one cory catfish and the pleco did die I'm not sure if I just couldn't see it however it's not the same white color as the fish That I had.

If this fish has specs, If there are other animals in the aquarium, instantly quarantine it in a tank with a filter and if the fish is a tropical fish, a heater, if the fish is the only animal in the tank, remove all substrate and decor. Do not use substrate or decorations for your quarantine tank if your fish is with other animals in your main tank. Now make sure to remove the filter pad so water can cycle through adding aeration, but not so it is removing medicine, Again, remove the filter pad, and other cleaning pads or substrates in the filter.

Now you will need to treat the fish, but first, you probably want to know how the fish get ich.

Ich Is in every tank, however, it needs weak victims. The first fish that catches ich is most likely suffering from a sickness or is dying slowly. but once one fish has it, it becomes extremely contagious and is a threat to weak and healthy and strong fish. It then gets worse and worse until it claims the lives of every fish with scales. As I said, fish like catfish and plecos are somehow immune to ich. do not add any more fish to the tank.

To treat ich, you will need melafix, stress coat, stress slime, and other medicines specified for ich.

A Petco worker lent us some of the medicine that they use, which they don't sell. Ant our tank had ich again, it worked like magic. Treat daily.

I hope this is helpful. Keep me updated. -Robert Geelan, Age 10