Have you seen your fish inactive for some time? Well, if the fish prefers to stay at the bottom of the tank and is not swimming around happily, you should observe its behavior carefully. It may be the beginning of cotton mouth disease.
This disease is a kind of fungus which is whitish and it is formed on the face of the fish, especially on the lips and cheeks. The lips will look swollen and they will get rot. You may even notice an additional strip at the end of the lip which will move around the mouth of the fish whenever the fish breaths.
You can find other symptoms also. The fish will lose appetite. So even if you offer them food, they will not be eager to catch it. There is a reason behind this. They will not be able to open the mouth easily due to this disease. They will move very slowly and the water will also get cloudy because of a white fluid coming out of the mouth of the fish frequently.
If you are unable to take quick action, the whole water will get contaminated soon and the other fish population will also get infected. Within a very short time thereafter, fish will die one after the other.
There is no guaranteed cure for this disease. There is only one solution.
You have to be very quick as well as cruel about it. If you see any single fish infected with this disease, you should immediately remove it from the aquarium and dispose it off. Many people prefer to remain inactive for some time and what they do is they just go and speak to the pet fish shop owner about the behavior of the fish. If you do not take this strong action, the other fish will be infected soon.
If you feel that the disease has not spread out, you can do one more thing. Take some water and add plenty of salt in that. Then take a piece of soft cloth and dip it in that water. You should swipe the mouth of the fish with this cloth. Then this fish must be kept in a separate tank. At the same time, add a solution with Terramycin in the aquarium water. You can immediately notice the difference in the behavior of the other fish population.
You can also use solution of Methylene Blue for the treatment. It is equally effective. But the main solution is – isolate the infected fish as quickly as possible and treat the aquarium water.
