White Growth Round Fishes Mouths

[nottud]

Hi everyone, I have recently spotted that some of my fish have started to have white growths near the mouth, I have included 2 photos that hopefully show this!
(The fish are apparently Long Finend African Tetras).
I normally do a partial water change every week (circa 10%) although wasn't at home last weekend so it has got to about 10 days now. Ph is around 7.4.
Nitrites = 0; nitrates = 40 which is similar to the main tapwater. I did a 20 - 25% water change yesterday.
Reasonable level of plants which are doing well and I also have lots of smallish snails.
No recent deaths so don't think there are ant decaying fish.
Tank is a Aqua One 620 (90 Litres) with "Ceramic Noodles" acting as a biological filter.

On another board that I subscribe too, someone has suggested the use of Ionic Silver at 10ppm which can be obtained over the internet, and this has started an intense debate of the merits of such a treatment!
Has anyone ever used this, and if so, what were the results, or is there something else that I could consider (I am based in Sussex, in the UK)?

Any help will be appreciated.

 

[WILDER]

White fluffy mouth, cotton strands coming from the mouth, bleached out lips is columnaris, its bacterial.
Just want to make sure the mouth not rotting away.
http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/hdcolumn.htm

 

[LauraFrog]

No clue about ionic silver, but columnaris is treated with antibiotics. The 'white mouth' strain is usually pretty mild, and if you can't get antibiotics you can usually knock it with anti internal bacteria. You can also use salt but with tetras I wouldn't recommend it - the salt would do more damage than the columnaris.