Mouth constantly open, not eating and stringy poo

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duanes said:
The fish in my photos, arrived with two others," it" only appeared to have the disease, although the mouth symptoms were not immediately apparent.
It sat in a corner, colors intensified, not eating, barely moving. Luckily all 3 were held in a Quarantine tank.
I normally QT each new fish for at least 3 months.
The one with the jaw anomaly's died within a week of the obvious symptoms, the other two didn't show symptoms for about a month or two, then both also died of the disease.
Because I had never seen or had the disease before I didn't recognize it
I thought it might be a dislocated jaw (something I had seen before) and had pushed back into place.
When I tried with the fish above, the jaw was immoveable, it appeared to have atrophied completely.
You may want to try snapping the jaw of your fish back into place with your fingers.
Click to expand...
Cheers for all your advice. I decided the best course of action was to euthanize the 2 fish. The meeki's jaw wasn't locked it could easily be pushed closed with my finger but as soon as I lowered it back into the water in the net it's mouth would extend right back out. I also cut both these fish open to see if I could find any worms in their gut but there was nothing obvious to the naked eye. I'm hoping that this wasn't columnaris but I'll just have to wait and see. Would you recommend dosing the tank with anything for the remaining fish or best to just wait and see?
 
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If it was columnaris, you wouldn't have been able to push the jaw in place, even momentarily.
and because columnaris is bacteria, bacteria are too small to see without a microscope.

But sometimes euthanasia is the best option, if it couldn't eat from the dislocation, it would have starved, and that would have left it susceptible to other diseases that can then spread throughout the tank.
 
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duanes said:
If it was columnaris, you wouldn't have been able to push the jaw in place, even momentarily.
and because columnaris is bacteria, bacteria are too small to see without a microscope.

But sometimes euthanasia is the best option, if it couldn't eat from the dislocation, it would have starved, and that would have left it susceptible to other diseases that can then spread throughout the tank.
Click to expand...
That's good to know ? hopefully it was something less serious and contagious. I don't know if euthanasia was the best choice or not but at least it's ended the suffering for these two fish. After dispatching the 2 fish I put the tank back together and sat and watched the fish, looking for any signs of illness amongst the others and sadly I've noticed that one of the firemouths looks to have the start of a swim bladder issue, it has to constantly flap it's finns to stay down. I don't know what's going on here and I'm hoping that it's nothing serious, perhaps it bumped into something whilst I was netting the ill fish, but I'm thinking its likely that all these issues are related and I may have more trouble coming my way ?
 
duanes duanes hoping you might be able to give me a little more advice. Since euthanising these two fish things have not got any better. As I mentioned above I noticed one of my firemouths has a swim bladder issue, he stays mid level in the tank and the correct way up but is constantly fighting not to float off to the surface, I stopped feeding for 4 days and then fed peas yesterday and today but still not looking any different. As well as the swim bladder issue I've just now euthanized a Swordtail, he obviously had dropsy, big swollen belly and had begun pineconing. I've been reading up and all these issues could be caused by gram negative bacteria, I think treating the tank with kannaplex and Epson salt would be a good idea? I can order kannaplex from the US but it won't be with me for 1-4 weeks. What would you recommend I do at this stage? All the fish (minus the swim bladder firemouth) to my eye look to be in good health but I believe fish are good at hiding illness until they're on deaths door
Thanks
 
I have never used Kannaplex so have no relevant input, other than I know it is used as a broad spectrum antibiotic (gram +, gram -).
I have used epsom salts, and they usually do no harm.
Because certain Columnaris variants seem to sometimes be species specific you may luck out.
In the past, I have euthanized all the infected tanks inhabitants, and sanitized everything its water touched, because I didn't't want any chance of the bacterias spread to my other tanks (at the time I ran about 20).
Time will tell.
 
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duanes said:
I have never used Kannaplex so have no relevant input, other than I know it is used as a broad spectrum antibiotic (gram +, gram -).
I have used epsom salts, and they usually do no harm.
Because certain Columnaris variants seem to sometimes be species specific you may luck out.
In the past, I have euthanized all the infected tanks inhabitants, and sanitized everything its water touched, because I didn't't want any chance of the bacterias spread to my other tanks (at the time I ran about 20).
Time will tell.
Click to expand...
It seems to be a well recommended treatment so I decided to order some after I posted the message, probably take 2-3 weeks before it gets here so I've got a while to decide if I'm going to use it.

Do you still believe I'm dealing with columnaris here?

This is my only tank so thankfully I don't need to worry about cross contamination.
 
Without a clear, closeup of the jaw area, its very hard to determine with any certainty what was wrong with the dead fish.
Something like this.
Above and below photos show the distinct separation that occurs between lips, and rest of facial area with Columnaris.
Even in its early stage (below) symptoms are obvious.
But because many aquatic diseases have similar symptoms, photos must very very clear, and close, otherwise it just not feasible to expect a concise diagnosis,
 
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