Help! Duck Lips!

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Pomatomus

Piranha
MFK Member
Jul 7, 2009
1,691
162
81
Sarasota, FL
So I got home about 30 minutes ago and noticed my male chocolate cichlid wasn't hanging out with his girlfriend. Then I saw him near the top of the tank with duck lips. I have heard about this disease (columnaris) before and I know that it progresses very quickly if untreated. So the first thing I did was dose Seachem Polyguard in the tank, in addition to 5 tbsp of salt. I didn't add more salt because it's a densely-planted 125g tank and I have a large clown loach. I'm surprised this fish is affected because I didn't notice any signs of stress. He breeds all the time and the pair even had babies again last week! I guess kids can be stressful too though.

Is there anything else I can do? Or anything I should have done differently? I have heard that metronidazole works well, so if I don't see improvement soon I will probably go get some API general cure. I would use medicated flakes but I don't think he can eat right now. His mouth is barely moving. I will post a pic from my phone in a moment.
 
Drop the temp to 75 degrees. Treat with kanamycin and furan 2. Treat in an unheated hospital tank if available.
 
I'll be sure to pick some of that up tomorrow. The tank isn't heated, but I'll talk to my roommates about keeping the thermostat in the house down for a bit.
 
Actually, do I need furan-2? Polyguard has nitrofurantoin and 5-nitro-2-furaldehyde in it already.
 
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