Enteric Redmouth Disease

[Myuu]

I bought some dojo loaches from my lfs today and I had noticed something strange about one of them. It was acting very lethargic and its head looked like it was inflamed. The dojo loach is a gold color morph, btw. It also looked like its mouth was dissolving, and I have never seen something like that before. I searched the web and didn't find anything pertaining to aquarium fish, only department of agriculture type websites about trout and salmon. I found this website(http/en.wikivet.net/Enteric_Redmouth_Disease ) that listed some symptoms:

The reddening of the throat and mouth that give the disease its name are caused by subcutaneous haemorrhage and are common but not always present. This can progress to erosion of the jaw and palate if untreated.Affected fish also have generally darkened skin and fins with haemorrhagic lesions around the gill tips, vent and fins and are lethargic and inappetant. They may have a distended abdomenleading to a "pot-bellied" appearance. Fish are often pale around the gills and may demonstrate exopthalmos with periorbital oedema. They are anorexic and may swim close to the surface.


Mortalities are frequent and variable. They may occur in small fry with virtually no preceding signs.[sup][3][/sup] Losses of 15% over a cycle are not uncommon and can reach 90% on small scale units.

This sounds pretty much like what happened to my loach. I have already euthed the fish and I took some pictures too. If it's not this disease I would like to know if anyone knows what it is so I can start freaking out or not.

While I was taking the pictures blood started to come out of its mouth, so there's that too.

 

[mattyeatsmatts]

Looks bad, did you take it back to you LFS to swap for another?

 

[Myuu]

Haven't had the chance yet, it's 5 am where I live. I probably won't have time to go tomorrow, but I'll have to see if I have time on monday. I got a couple other loaches along with that one and they seem fine, but I will be monitoring them very closely.

 

[mattyeatsmatts]

is it contagious?

 

[Myuu]

If what the fish has is enteric redmouth disease, then it probably is. It's a bacteria infection that's spread via feces, but I don't know if it was in there long enough to spread it. I only had it for about 10 hours before I euthed it. But I still can't find any information about this disease in aquarium fish.

 

[mattyeatsmatts]

hmm it would probably be a good thing to tell your LFS, I know that mine uses the same filter for various tanks.