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Mouth looks bitten off and fuzzy HELP!

2K views 31 replies 6 participants last post by  turtle10 
#1 ·
Housing
What size is your tank? 20 gallon long
What temperature is your tank? 79* F
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? Three other girls, they all get along.

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? New Life Spectrum Betta Pellets, Weekly Microworms
How often do you feed your betta fish? Each girl gets about two-three pellets two times a day, for microworm day they get about two worms each that morning and a pellet or two at night.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Weekly
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 30-40%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Prime, two drops per gallon. I sometimes will soak part of an IAL when I have them.

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 5
pH: 7.8
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Stress stripes, looks like mouth has a wound or something. It is fuzzy/furry white around the mouth wound with a little bit of red.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? More lethargic, stays at surface more, harder to eat pellet :(
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Just this morning, she was perfect last night.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? I put her in a separate plastic gallon tub with a heater set at 77-78, a piece of hornwort and anacharis, and a tsp of aquarium salt.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No, but then again I only got her at Petco about a month ago.
How old is your fish (approximately)? No older than six months, she is tiny!

I am so worried about her. The fuss looks like teeny tiny hairs all coming up. It almost looks furry.. Here are some pictures.









 
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#2 ·
I'm pretty sure that's Columnaris or Cotton - mouth which is Flexibacter. I'm not sure of treatment. You can google it and see what's suggested if someone doesn't give you an answer soon. It's highly contagious so I'd quarantine her asap.
 
#5 ·
PM Oldfishlady and see what she suggests. She knows the most about natural stuff but in the interim, making sure the water is very clean and keeping the salt in should help. I think lowering the temp a bit is also recommended but no one said how much.

Make sure you vacuum your gravel in your main aquarium and do a 50% water change. It lives in waste, so any you can get up should help. Also, clean your nets and containers really well, maybe dip them in a 10% bleach solution (1 part bleach, 9 parts water) and then rinse really well.
 
#6 ·
Any meds may have to be ordered online as many pet stores dont have them available. By the time you get them it may be too late...Honestly, how bad has it damaged her mouth? From what I read this thing tends to rot the flesh. even if she survives what quality of life will the fish have? Perhaps you should consider euthanasia as an option?

Anyhow, I have found this:
http://www.oneworldinternetcafe.com/betta/betta_fish_diseases.html
 
#7 ·
Get her out of that tank ASAP, columnaris is extremely easy for the other girls to catch. Lower the temp for her to 76* to slow down the process. Adding salt might help as well. And, go talk to OFL, she might have more specific instructions.

I don't mean to try and put you down, but columnaris can be hard to cure, and you might have to be prepared to humanely euthanize her if it starts to look bad.
 
#8 ·
She is in quarantine with aquarium salt. Will lower water temp down to 76, was at 78. It looks like I can see the deeper part of her flesh. I am prepared to euthanize, but I really don't want to. Because of the way her mouth looks right now, I am not sure if there would be a good quality of life. It looks like her lips were eaten away or soemthing :( It already bothered her to eat a tiny pellet.

I will do a water change on main tank and vacuum gravel. May take gravel out.
 
#9 ·
Get the aquarium salt up to 3tsp/gal

This bacteria is always in the tank at low levels...ever present.....the fish immune response keeps it from infecting them....once the fish gets stressed or get an open wound along with a compromised immune response this bacteria can infect...two types...fast and slow...the fast can kill within 12-24h the slow the fish can recover......
 
#10 ·
Okay so I just sold some clothes lol at Buffalo Exchange, and went to my LFS. Bought some Triple Sulfa PRo Series by API which is an anti bacterial medication which can be used to treat mouth fungus/cotton mouth disease. I put in the proper dose along with some Attison's Betta Spa (they were out of IALs!). I also bought some anti bacterial pellets and gave her have of one. Should I give them to the girls from the main tank? They do not show any symptoms but I put some Aquarium salt in.
 
#11 ·
:(

When I look at her from the side, the pointy part of her mouth area is totally gone. Where the flesh should be is just the fuzzy stuff. When she goes up for air she "jerks" a little bit, not sure else how to describe it. Will the flesh grow back?
 
#16 ·
Okay I already used aquarium salt for them so I will just stick with that. It looks like her mouth is eaten away a bit, is it worth it to try and save her? Like do you think she will have a good quality of life is she is healed? It has been eaten down so much it looks like she ran into the glass and smashed her nose, it is like flat looking from the side, no pointy pout :(
 
#18 ·
She has been slower and calmer. This morning during the feeding frenzy she stayed within the anacharis instead of coming for food. When she goes for air she is a bit spazzy, like maybe it hurts or something to get air.

I just checked on her, her mouth looks flatter and even more eaten away. She is still moving around a bit. I gave her some pellets, and she kept trying to eat them but couldn't :(
 
#23 ·
I think I am going to have to euthanize her. It has eaten away her entire mouth area, not just the lips :(. She freaks out now because it is hard for her to get air. It is really bad, like super fuzzy now. Her stress stripes are darker than I have ever seen them. I think it is time guys :(.
 
#25 ·
Clove Oil.

She has just passed. I only had her for about one month. I remember she was the tiniest little girl at Petco. I never even decided on a name for her though.

The whole time I had her, she had stress bars on and off and her colors were very dull. It wasn't until she had gone to sleep that her stress bars went away and her full colors showed. She was beautiful, a metallic-y indigo color.

:(
 
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