Mouth Fluff - Is It Usually Bacterial Or Fungal?

[mav8989]

Hi all... 1 in a school of 6 harlequin rasboras has developed a white tuft on it's mouth, it's really tiny. At first I thought it was a piece of brine shrimp or something but it has persisted overnight.

I have had great success with Mela-Fix for treating minor cuts, missing scales and all to prevent and kill bacteria.

Is something like what I described above bacterial or usually fungal? If it's usually fungal I don't think Mela-Fix will work, am I right?

Any ideas besides some kind of hardcore chemicals?

 

[hollyp0p]

you may want to double check with someone like wilder later, but it sounds likely it is fungal, something like columnaris, you're probably going to want to treat it with pimafix and melafix

 

[WILDER]

For flexibactor columnaris, mouth fungus false name you use maracyn one and two.
If the columnaris is a bad strain it can rot the mouth away.

 

[mav8989]

I hope it's not columnaris like you said!

I thought I had taken care of things - I used Mela-fix and Pima-fix together and the tetra cleared up.

Now a differnent one has it and one of my red platies has a white substance right at the base of it's tailfin, on the top. IT almost looks like a papercut right where the tailfin meets the body of the tail. It looks like one scale there is kind of raised and it has kind of turned grey. There is a white cottony fluff on either sides of it.

I have never had problems like this, ever, in all my years of fishkeeping - only a bout here and there of ich.

I'm ready to go anti-biotic route - but if it is a combination of bacterial and fungal will that nip it??

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I want to dose this tank with antibiotics and/or whatever else is suggested right away - before it gets past the point of no return.

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!

Thanks

 

[mav8989]

By the way - all tank stats normal - AM=0 Nitrite=0 Nitrate=between 10-20 (recent 25% water change). Filtering 400GPH on 65 gallons - cotton only - carbon removed. Half tablespoon salt per 10 gallons. No other fish seem affected except two described.

Thanks

 

[hollyp0p]

By the way - all tank stats normal - AM=0 Nitrite=0 Nitrate=between 10-20 (recent 25% water change). Filtering 400GPH on 65 gallons - cotton only - carbon removed. Half tablespoon salt per 10 gallons. No other fish seem affected except two described.

Thanks

You need to go with what wilder suggested, use both maracyn one and two ideally!

 

[mav8989]

By the way - all tank stats normal - AM=0 Nitrite=0 Nitrate=between 10-20 (recent 25% water change). Filtering 400GPH on 65 gallons - cotton only - carbon removed. Half tablespoon salt per 10 gallons. No other fish seem affected except two described.

Thanks

You need to go with what wilder suggested, use both maracyn one and two ideally!

I went to the LFS and got them - I dropped the proper number of tablets in the tank. The directions said to put them in the tank to dissolve - not in the filter. They ARE dissolving but there are millions of little pieces swirling around... I checked the expiration date on the foil package and it is good till next year-- is this normal?

 

[hollyp0p]

most tablet meds make a mess until the filter clears it through, I wouldn't worry, I used tetracycline and it did a similar thing...also made my water yellow...lol

 

[WILDER]

Maracyn can make the tank cloudy for a while.
Have you incraased aeration in the tank.

 

[mav8989]

Worked out exactly as you said and particles have cleared - water turned color as noted. The symptoms are clearing - 4 days to go.

Thanks so much for the advice - the combo of meds seems to be working perfectly! I was in a panic because I've never ever had anything to fight but ich.

 

[mav8989]

Ahhhhhhh.... HELP!

Everything cleared up perfectly. Now two things occurred.

1) One rather large and very healthy Platy developed a split in her tail. No white fringes or anything - looked like an injury - she will tend to slam around suddenly if lights are brought on suddenly in the morning without being gradual with room light. That was yesterday I noticed that. Healed well - tail looks good - good solid black in color and all, no suggestion of bacteria or fungus, etc.

2) I come home from work tonight - another Red Platy has what looks like a white pimple on the base of her tail on the side, just where the "meat" ends and the fin starts. It's pretty big... and no it's not ich, I've regretfully seen that too many times in my life.

Is all this stuff related? I went through the mess above, then perhaps ignoring the split tail I've got this new issue.

Any ideas, is it something else I'm not dealing with?

Stats are good, AM=0 NitrITE=0 NitrATE=10

This is exactly what it looks like - I found a similar post:

http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/16...-On-Platy-Tail/

I'd love to know what worked for them, but they don't seem to use the forum anymore....

Thanks!

 

[WILDER]

Split fins in livebeaeres is common they heal on there own in good water quality.
The spot does it have any red around the edges of the spot, or a red centre.

 

[mav8989]

Split fins in livebeaeres is common they heal on there own in good water quality.
The spot does it have any red around the edges of the spot, or a red centre.

No, no red edges or center. It looks like a pimple or something, but it is the same color as the fish.

Split fins in livebeaeres is common they heal on there own in good water quality.
The spot does it have any red around the edges of the spot, or a red centre.

No, no red edges or center. It looks like a pimple or something, but it is the same color as the fish.

 

[WILDER]

I would treat the spot as bacterial for now.
Good luck.