Cotton Mouth
WHAT IS COTTON MOUTH?
Cotton mouth is a serious illness , it can be fatal too because the growth obstruct the ability to eat and often gets wrongly diagnosed as a fungus which led to a wrong treatment. It’s a bacterial infection. The name pretty much sum up how it looks, a ball of cotton wool around the mouth of the fish. Once the symptoms spotted you need to quickly dealt with it because the delayed in action may harm the rest of the fish in the tank
THE CAUSE
The bacteria infection is normally when you introduced new fishes from pet store without quarantine into your tank. Please ensure the fishes you bought quarantined at least 30 days before introduced to your new tank.
Poor water quality will led to the cotton mouth too. So, ensuring the optimum water quality and keep the tank as clean as possible. It will definitely help to stop the bacteria from spreading.
SYMPTOMS
- White growths that look like cotton wool
- White spots around the mouth, fins and scales
- Grey or white lines developing around the mouth, which eventually produce short tufts
- Dry skin
- A thick and overdeveloped slime coat
- lack of appetite
TREATMENT
It can possibly take several weeks for the recovery. In the severe case, you may need to apply the antibacterial medication on the fish mouth to eradicate the bacteria. While in the situation of early diagnose, you may add melafix into the tank , Melafix works pretty well and fairly safe.Ensuring a regular water change is vital in preventing bacteria spreading in the tank.