L010A Red Lizard with mouth fungus

[MMurray]

Hey people,

Before I continue I don't believe the disclosure of every drop of water that is in my aquarium is necessary to answer my question.

After years in the hobby thinking that "fungus" on fish was a myth/joke I have finally come to experience it for myself. One of my male L010A has developed a small white fungus-like growth on its mouth. My first crack at treating it was with API fungus... After further research I guess mouth fungus isn't usually even a fungus but a bacterial infection. My next approach will be with API erythromycin as it apparently treats this condition. Asking for relevant experience/advice with mouth fungus like symptoms in the pleco family of fish.

Below are some pictures

[bekateen]

I've only killed plecos I treated with fungus. But they were Chaetostoma so they were touchy to start with. Sorry, I can't give good advice here.

Best of success, Eric

[MMurray]

Bump,

Has anyone manually removed fungus? I almost want to pull it off of him and treat for secondary conditions as a preventative. 24 hours after the first API Erythromycin dosage the condition has not shown any improvement.

[Fundulopanchax76]

Yes i would advice you that - as is visible for me the fungus is not closely related with its mouth - cut the fungus with some clean instrument or remove it with stick for theeth. Then put some aquarium medicine for cleaning the tank from bacterias. I dont know what products have you in USA and why you start with antibiothics ? Very few antibiotics kill fungies and you cant propely dose them ! I use products of german firm SERA - Omnipur is product that cure most of diseases - it contains acriflavin and other anthiseptics which act externally. I think that somebody in USA should import it ?! As i use it in my tanks with plecos mostly for other fish not for them, but they accept it very well without showing any damage.

[bekateen]

stick for theeth

Stick for teeth = toothpick

[TwoTankAmin]

Mouth fungus is cause by various strains of Flexibacter columnaris. it has a number of different symptoms with various names. It also shows up as white patches on the body. Often this occurs at the base of the dorsal fin and then is called saddleback. Additionally, this disease will work its nastiness on gills as well. The most effective treatments are antibiotics.

I have treated for this disease over the years in a variety of fish, but never had any of my plecos get it. The closest was some corys. I also keep altum angels and this is a common disease in the past, so keepers were always looking for other ways to treat this disease. here is one of the things we found which can be effective:

In a study by Thomas-Jinu and Goodwin, the herbicide Diquat® (Zeneca Agricultural Products, Wilmington, DE, USA) was shown to significantly reduce channel catfish mortalities to zero percent after challenge with F. columnare[111]. The herbicide has also proven to be effective in the treatment of columnaris disease in salmonids [6, 139].

from https://veterinaryresearch.biomedcentra ... 4-27#Sec15

There are several things of which to be aware when dealing with this disease.The first is there are multiple strains which vary in their level of virulence. The worst of these usually kills very fast and can be almost impossible to beat. Other strains are much milder, respond well to treatment and are not usually fatal. There is no way to know from just looking at an affected fish to know which strain may be at work. So the best course is to treat as soon as you know/suspect this disease is present. Next, because this is a bacterial infection, it can spread. so treating the entire tanks is a must.

In addition to the paper from which I quoted above you can find a lot of papers on the topic using Google Scholar. https://scholar.google.com/ The above paper has some info that appears to contradict other studies re the use of potassium permanganate, which I would avoid.

[MMurray]

Thanks for the paper, I am going to try to whack it with API Furan-2, we'll see what happens

[MMurray]

No reduction in the mouth issue after an API Furan-2 treatment course

[TwoTankAmin]

If the fish is still eating, I would resort to feeding an anti-biotic as opposed to water dosing.

Have you seen any sign of this on any other fish? Mear in mind this disease can manifest as white patches on a fish, often at the base of the dorsal fin.

[MMurray]

I treated with Kanaplex and Ken's metronidazole medicated food. All fish are still alive but the growth has not changed. I cut about 80% off last night but the growth is really attached to the fish's mouth. Next suggested course of treatment? If I had to guess I am assuming this fish has been battling this illness for about 2 months. Maybe this isn't columnaris?

[SLIMESLAYER10]

salt if you dont have plants. 1 table spoon per 2gal or 3gal. not sure how L10a's react to salt so i wouldn't do 1 - 1 tbl spoon per gal

[MMurray]

the plants in the tank are irrelevant. the best course of treatment is all I'm looking for

salt with whiptails is scary