I just noticed that my clown knife's mouth is open wide and it appears that he can't close it. Please HELP!!!
Clown Knife Mouth Stuck Open
- Thread starter Steven Vega
- Start date
Open mouth lock jaw? If its to the point where he cant eat, he probably wont make it. You may have to make a hard decision. Let him live out the rest of his days slowly wasting away, or a kick mercy kill to put him out of his misery. I hate to say it, but if it doesnt resolve on its own, or if you cant assit him in closeing his mouth without causing any further injury or distress, you may need to go the hard road on this one.
Best of luck to you.
Best of luck to you.
I did net him and while gently holding him I tried to gently close his mouth and his bottom jaw did close easily but didn't stay closed. However, after putting him back in the tank he did manage to close his mouth but his mouth seems injured now on the left side. 
I think this this happened because he fed on a feeder fish that a little bigger than he's used to eating.
I posted a pic of my Clown Knife's mouth injury. Does anyone have any suggestions about what I should do?
It's hard to see any injury in that pic, but if it's mouth is closing again, I would just let it get some rest and time to heal. Just keep the water clean and add some aquarium salt. Is it opening and closing it's mouth like normal again? Is it eating again?
Yes he his eating and opening and closing his mouth again. However, there is a dark grey piece that looks like its part of the upper lip that seems damaged. 
If anything, all I see that it looks a bit discolored around his cheek area (if that's what you're talking about). If it's eating and acting normal, just give it some time and just keep checking up on it. Just in case, you can always bump up the temp and add some aquarium salt for good measure.
