Umbee mouth infection

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Modest_Man

Modest_Man

Polypterus
MFK Member
Jul 5, 2006
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Washington
He injured his mouth on some eggcrate a couple weeks ago to the point it was noticeable (a darker patch). As of yesterday I noticed this (sadly I've been busy and haven't spent much time in front of the tank) along with white stringy feces.

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I pulled him from the tank, drained the abcess as best I could and treated with a topical triple antibiotic ointment (active ingredients are bacitracin zinc, neomycin sulfate, and polymyxin B sulfate).

His mouth is still protruding and I'm worried about the stringy white feces. I need a good recommendation of an antibiotic I can add to the water that I can pick up tomorrow. I'm not so hot on my fish medication. And I really wish I had a microscope/lab to run a culture. :(

If anyone recommends Melafix or Pimafix I'll punch you in the face.

Thanks.
 
I didn't read the whole post, but you should probably use melafix.

Just kidding. I suggest you get a gram positive and gram negative antibiotic treatment. From what you listed I would assume you have gram positive and gram negative. I'm not sure if it helps, but you could add salt since it's an external infection.
 
Gram+ and gram- pretty much sums up all bacteria on the planet. As I'm not sure what species of bacteria are causing it I'd assume that I'd use a broad range antibiotic (which inhibit the growth of both gram+ and gram- bacteria). But specifically what antibiotic do people use? There are many different types out that that work in different ways.
 
Well, just look for an antibiotic that is distrubted through the water, that is gram positive and gram negative. The point is, is that there's no way to tell what bacteria infected this unless you make a culture.

http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/products5.html
Tetracycline Hydrocloride, try that.
Or TMP Sulfa, which can be found on the same page.
 
Modest man, I know this is an old post, but I had a bad run of fish deaths with this same symptom. It wipped out my 8" female umbie, 6" female la ceiba and countless festae. I was told it may be a virus. I have only one survivor of this terrible disease. mortality is like 99%. Just wondering what the out come was here, and if the fish made it, what did you do?
 
Lost the fish a few days after posting. Best advice I got in regards to it was this-

Sorry for the late response.

I believe it is related to an ulcer disease seen more commonly in Koi and is caused by pseudomonas and aeromonas bacteria.

This ulcer disease could be hemorrhagic septicemia with symptoms that include deep skin lesions of variously sized areas of hemorrhage and necrosis. It is a very nasty, and I describe it as taking a dirty blunt screwdriver and taking chunks out of a fish.

I say it could be septicemia or at least related somehow because I've seen at times both symptoms (enlarged swollen and distended lips and hemorrhaging) appearing together.

The nitro is not topical. If you want to use something as a topical agent, try acriflavin. The medication (trade name bifuran or furan 2) is a powdered combination of nitro and furo. It will yellow your water and it isn't very water soluble so you have to "break" up the powder once in the water as it will accumulate along the surface. The yellow water will dissipate over time.

The swollen lips could have been a secondary infection due to injury (and this is the very reason why I don't recommend using egg crate as dividers for cichlids or aggressive fish. I've used it before and learned my lesson and now choose acrylic dividers whenever possible).

But I've seen the problem happen without warning and without prior injury to the mouth area. Also, you mentioned the fish was excreting the dreaded white feces which led me to believe it was a different issue and not caused by the egg crate.

It's strange because I've only seen it happen to a few fish species, particularly umbees. The other fish would be festae and most recently, micropthalmus.

I hope all your other fish are doing well, and hope that you will again raise the umbee. They are great fish!

-Ben
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Modest_Man;3851773; said:
Lost the fish a few days after posting. Best advice I got in regards to it was this-
Click to expand...

that is the best advice you could of got!!!! Ben is "THE MAN" My Beani had this for a couple of days befor I contacted Ben. He advised me to use the Furan 2 so I did so immediately. Within 24 hrs I noticed a difference. With 3 days he was 100%

Furan 2 = miracle fish drug :headbang2
 
Modest_Man;3851773; said:
Lost the fish a few days after posting. Best advice I got in regards to it was this-
Click to expand...

Damn! I got the same advice from an OG fish keeper. The only bone to pick with that post was that the medication recommended, was right but its used for viral infections not bacterial, so it cant be pseudomonas. Being the problem is viral, there is no cure just temporary fixes. It usually can come back, like herpes! We just need to keep treating the water with that same damn yellowing powder. I almost just want to kill what ever fish gets it. Its ended too many nice fish. Oh, that med mentioned is not the cheapest med nor is it easy to find. We should call this disease "The Hoby Ender"
 
LOPAKA;3851824; said:
that is the best advice you could of got!!!! Ben is "THE MAN" My Beani had this for a couple of days befor I contacted Ben. He advised me to use the Furan 2 so I did so immediately. Within 24 hrs I noticed a difference. With 3 days he was 100%

Furan 2 = miracle fish drug :headbang2
Click to expand...

beware, you will need this drug around, its no cure. Its a virus, they dont have cures. Ben is the OG I got this info from. It may come back
 
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