Firemouth sick

[chris_1127]

I recently lost a firemouth cichlid with the only symptom being that his mouth seemed to be permanently stuck open. Unfortunately the second firemouth that i got at the same time as the first one (about 6 months ago) has now developed the same symptoms - its generally listless, swimming with its mouth permanently open (not gasping as such) and not eating at all (very unusual as its usally pretty greedy at feeding time). Water parameters are all good, ammonia and nitrites nil and nitrates <30; and i do a 50% weekly change. Theres no other obvious signs of illness of any kind, does anyone have any ideas or suggestions re this?

 

[black angel]

have you had a look down its throat to see if theres a stone blocking it? you may need to catch it to get a good look. as you have had the fish for a while then i dont know what else it could be other than gill flukes.

 

[chris_1127]

thanks for the reply, havent caught it to look down its throat yet but couldnt see anything obvious blocking its throat when it was facing the glass last night. will see if i can catch it this evening and get a better look maybe. There was nothing blocking the throat on the other that died with the same symptoms though

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

One of my harlequins suffered from that. He did recover from it but died shortly after probably partly from being so weakened by whatever it is that causes it. Try to make sure some food is crushed really small and aimed for that fish. I don't know if there's anything that'll help cure/ease the condition. I'm not really sure what the cause is. Sorry.
Hugs,
P.

 

[black angel]

do you use a dechlorinator that removes metals as well? maybe its slowly being poisoned. clutching at straws really.
on another forum someone works in a pet store and they had a batch of goldies come in with the same symptoms and nothing they tried worked, they all died. sorry.
hope someone can help you.

 

[chris_1127]

thanks for the further replies; i feed both pellets and flake so the food is plenty small enough, however the firemouth just isnt interested. I treat the water with dechlorinator which also removes metals. plus it is the only fish thats showing any symptoms of illness (tankmates include juvie severum, rams, an assortment of barbs and plecs). i dont really want to treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic or anything as i dont really want to subject the other fish to this unnecessarily. have to keep my fingers crossed i guess.

 

[chris_1127]

quick update; i've now moved the firemouth to my 15g snail breeding tank and dosed with antibiotics (nepolex). Its mouth is still stuck open, theres nothing obviously blocking its throat, but uts gill movement is very rapid now too. still very listless, and still not eating anything at all

 

[Boxcar Muzzdogg]

This disease has appeared in several fish that my lfs received from the breeder. To my knowledge, and I have asked many people, there is no cure, and no one seems to know what causes it or what it is called, if anything. The sickness was never transfered to any other fish even though the infected fish were in the tanks for many months because no one would buy them. I did actually have a woman who bought a giant danio which had the disease. She came back to tell me none of her fish caught the illness and the danio was doing great. Maybe by making sure the firemouth eats the food, it can survive.

 

[chris_1127]

thats one of the problems at the moment - it wont even touch bloodworms even when they float right past its nose, and normally theyd be gone before you could blink. i guess i'll just keep on trying with bloodworms, beefheart and anything else it would normally wolf down, and just keep my fingers crossed that the antibiotics can help in some way

 

[black angel]

have a look under its gill cover and see if they are still a cherry red. there could be a gill maggot or something nasty in their.
if the gills look healthy then all i can think of is a bacterial disease or virus.

 

[haddock]

i lost a good few harlequins like this too. Some had bulging eyes too but many had open mouths only.
No advice though, sorry and good luck.

 

[chris_1127]

unfortunatley the firemouth died yesterday . had a good look and no obvious symptoms. thanks for your help anyway though people