# White Mouths on my Serpae Tetras?



## Kurly (Jul 31, 2007)

I have 5 Serpae Tetras in my community tank. The last couple of days I have noticed that the mouths on 2 of them are turning white. There isn't any fungus apperance to them. Just the mouths are white. What could this be?

They do chase each other around quite a bit which I did not know that they would do. Could the white mouths be from fighting or is it the start of some type of disease?

Thanks


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## DavidAl (Nov 17, 2009)

Kurly,

What you're seeing in your serpae's might be the beginning stages of Flavobacterium columnaris AKA Flexibacter. This is not an actual fungus (Saprolegnia), but it looks like it. Antibiotics work well; however, at this stage I would just look into the Melafix/Pimafix combination. If that doesn't work you'll need to bump the treatment up to something like Maracyn/Maracyn2. If possible, drop the temp to around 75F and conduct massive water changes. Flexibacter grows well in water with a lot of organics so you'll want to maintain excellent water conditions.

David


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## Kurly (Jul 31, 2007)

Thank you David. I have a couple more questions for you. When you say Organics, do you mean plants? I have a very deep 65 gallon planted tank. The water parameters are always kept good , 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and nitrates at about 5. I removed the fish that have the white mouths and put them into my hospital tank. I am treating them in there. Do I still need to treat the 65 gallon tank also? The other fish in the 65 gallon tank do not have the white mouth. I did change the water in the 65 gallon tank when I removed the fish with the white mouths.

Thanks


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## DavidAl (Nov 17, 2009)

Kurly,

By organics I mean decomposing matter like fish waste and fish food. This stuff can settle in the substrate, which can cause water quality issues. That said, I didn't know you had plants in the tank so I wouldn't worry about it; they'll use the waste right up. Speaking of plants, if there are any decaying plants in the tank (another organic matter), remove them before they decompose. By the way, your water parameters are fine.

I wouldn't treat the main tank just yet. You may have caught this early enough and isolated it. Monitor the rest of the inhabitants for patches of white spots. This stuff can grow anywhere on the body, not just the mouth, so keep a close eye on them. With that said, healthy fish can carry this disease without showing any symptoms. Keep your fish stress-free and their immune system will suppress it. If you do see another outbreak, treat the whole tank.

Just curious...what is your pH and GH? From past research, I know this disease does not particularly like low levels of either of the aforementioned parameters. Are there any other fish in the main tank, other than the serpae's? If you have any livebeares, watch them closely. They are extremely susceptible to Flexibacter.

David


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