My Zebra's Heads Are Turning Red & Loosing Their Mouths

Buggsfish

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My zebra danios have recently become sick. I've lost 1, and I'm sure I'll be losing another shortly... Their mouths are rotting off... They're in a take that has been set up since July 5th, they were the first in the tank... 4 weeks later I add 3 dwarf gouramis from the same fish store, no problems... 2 weeks ago I add some peppered coris from a different store... no problems til last weekend... I notice some of the zebras were hovering in the tank, no swimming like their usual, then all but one stopped a day or 2 later... Then the first zebra I lost seemed to be gasping, so I added airstones, didn't help, he started to shiver at the back of the tank, refuse to eat, & continued what I thought was gasping... Tuesday morning his head was red a bloody looking & his mouth was torn up, I scooped him out & put him in a cup & he rolled around the cup for a while before he could orientate himself, then about 30 min later he was dead... I thought it was isolated just him, but one of my gold zebras is now presenting with the same symptoms, and looking at him, he's missing the top of his mouth & his head his turning red... I think it's an infection, but I'm not sure what it is, I've been looking online all week and the only thing I can find a similar picture of them is for a mouth rot that's supposed to only really infect wild caught fish... I don't presently have a hospital tank or water parameters, I work such hours that the stores are all closed, I'm going tomorrow morning... My gouramis & coris have no symptoms & look great... I don't want to treat the whole tank, but I think I'll need to just to be sure that no one else gets sick...
 

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Size of tank in gallons or litres.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite,nitrate, and ph.

It sound like mouth rot which is flexibactor columnaris and septicemia.
Best to destroy the fish once the mouth start to rot.


Water change and increase aeration.
United states maracyn one and two.
UK anti internal bacteria med by interpet and pimafix.

http://www.articledepot.co.uk/article-29320.htm
 
sorry to disagree wilder but i have some fish that have recovered well from mouth rot - yes they dont look pretty but eat well and lead as normal a lives as the others
 
I really meant once the mouth starts to really rot away best to destroy the fish.
 
Size of tank in gallons or litres.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite,nitrate, and ph.

It sound like mouth rot which is flexibactor columnaris and septicemia.
Best to destroy the fish once the mouth start to rot.


Water change and increase aeration.
United states maracyn one and two.
UK anti internal bacteria med by interpet and pimafix.

[URL="http://www.articledepot.co.uk/article-29320.htm"]http://www.articledepot.co.uk/article-29320.htm[/URL]




it's a 10 gallon tank, 3 small dwarf gouramis, 2 tiny coris, & 6 zebras gold & blue (not glow zebras tho) (4 now) (I know I'm overstocked), I don't have any readings, the shop I intially got my fish from said I wouldn't need them unless I had a major problem & then I could bring in a sample to have tested, but they're an hour away, I'm on my way to the petstore in town to get the test kit & the meds. The tank is vacumed with a 50% water change weekly & then a 25-30% just water change in the middle of the week.

I have my tank set up with just a power filter, they said an under gravel filter would work in opposition to my power filter, last week we had a power outtage & my filter didn't start up again, could I have lost bacteria & that stressed my fish? I put the airstones in to keep the water aggitated at least so they wouldn't suffocate... I didn't have much time I was running late for work and wasn't really very sure what to do... I also didn't have the money to buy a whole new filter, the lfs said they would be fine with bubbles til I got a filter... The filter is fine now, the was a algea build up on the gears that suck up the water so it was slipping...

I've noticed the remaining zebras have dimples in their mouths like the other 2 did when it started, they're still eating & swimming, will the dimple fill in like the fins grow back or will the dimple remain? I also noticed this morning one of my gold zebras has turned a strange shade of the gold, he's darker and it has a strange tinge to it, could it be from being sick or something all together different... Or maybe my other gold zebras are faded & he's not???
 
Turn tanks lights out and shine a torch on the fish for yellow spots, gold dusting, or a rusty coloured varnish.
Any signs of flicking and rubbing, excess mucas, darting, erratic swimming.
 
Turn tanks lights out and shine a torch on the fish for yellow spots, gold dusting, or a rusty coloured varnish.
Any signs of flicking and rubbing, excess mucas, darting, erratic swimming.

No dust, spots, or rust color... No flicking, rubbing, mucas, darting, or erratic swimming other than the "shivering" they were doing before... they shine blue/green, but it's along their stripes... They look similar to the strange yellow color the glow zebras are, but it's only along the base of their fins where they meet the body...

My pH is 7.6, Ammonia 0.25, NitrItes 0, and NitrAtes 0 as well... Not sure why I have a 0 NitrAte reading, my tank has had fish constantly since the beginning of July, and I only have a couple very small plants (which have started turning brown over the last week)

I've started the Maricyn 1 & 2 yesterday, the fish seemed upset yesterday when I started the powders, but today they're behaving MUCH better... They're swimming like normal, no more shivering, eating like little pigs again, and their fins are opened again... One question about the meds, it's a 5 day dosing, do I wait until the 6th day to do a water change, or is it ok to do a water change while medicating? The inserts with the meds didn't say about the water changes, just the active carbon...

I've thuroughly cleaned their tank yesterday, 50% water change, vacumed the gravel, and doubled their salt (from 1 teaspoon/2.5 gallons, to 2 teaspons/2.5 gallons) I'm not sure if it's going to hurt my coris, I've read their supposed to be sensitive to salt, but the store they came from said they keep them in 1 Tablespoon/5 gallon & their coris all seemed fine (they had them scattered thru out nearly all their freshwater tanks... I've been salting all my fish's tanks tho, it's kept my betta's water much nicer and they look nicer...

***I figured out my 0 NitrAte reading, reread the directions, didn't shake the 2nd bottle, it's now reading between the 5.0 & 10, it's not really closer to one or the other, looks like the 2 colors were mixed...
 
it dosn't sound like velvet to me then.
Water change and run some black carbon. You might need to do a 2nd round. Just follow meds instructions.

Any plants rotting as that can cause bad water quality.
Remove ornaments and do a good vac.
 
it dosn't sound like velvet to me then.
Water change and run some black carbon. You might need to do a 2nd round. Just follow meds instructions.

Any plants rotting as that can cause bad water quality.
Remove ornaments and do a good vac.


The plants only started to look bad after the fish did... I remove everything from the tank once a week & vacum... I know I'm overstocked, but I can't get rid of the fish, but I try to take to give them the best care I can... Their my therapy fish, I had to remove my dogs from my apartment just before I got the fish, so I'm very careful about feeding them properly, cleaning them, & checking them daily...
 

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