My fish drooling.

[keehoe]

Hi, can anyone tell me what disease is the BIT female having? The tiny thing hanging on the mouth doesn't looks like cotton. More like a solid exclaimation mark.

It is not drooling for sure. Don't seems to affect her appetiate though.

Sorry about the poor photo quality.

[whuntley]

I cannot see the pictures, as they are too dark on my monitor. Try processing them in a photo editor to raise brightness and contrast. Some pretty poor exposures can be rescued, that way.

From your description it does not sound like columnaris (cottonmouth disease), but could be thyroid disease.

If it is a benign thyroid tumor, the treatment takes about 4 weeks. Make a stock solution of 0.5g iodine and 5g potassium iodide in 100 ml of water.

Add 1 drop of stock solution to every 5 l of aquarium water. That is, one ml to every 50 l of aquarium water. Treat in regular aquarium, as everything is low on iodides if the fish get "goiters." Add proportional amounts with each water change.

The above is from Untergasser, by the way.

I'm amused when hack fish authors advise not to use iodized salt in the aquarium. The above treatment is hundreds of times as much iodide as you would get from iodized salt, and is quite harmless to fish. The bad stuff in iodized salt is only in the premium brands, where they use silica gel as the free-running (anti-caking) agent. Cheaper salt uses sodium ferrocyanide (Yellow Prussiate of Soda) that is more soluble and easier on the gills than the "powdered glass" in the fancy brands.

Wright

[keehoe]

Wright, i have added a few picture into the post. It is time like this that i manage to take better photo. Hope to be able to pin down the problem and fix it. Although it doesn't seems to bother the fish. But i worry about the fish.
Thanks.

[whuntley]

Looks like a pretty typical thyroid tumor. I'd go the iodide route, as it looks like your water could be a bit low in iodides.

Wright

[hobbit6003]

Hi Wright,

Sorry, but I beg to differ.

From the pics added, it seems like a mebranous or cystic growth lcated at the tip of the lower jaw of the mouth. Such a cystic growth is usually a result or a reaction to a traumatic lesion associated with a secondary infection, or to a ectoparasite which has lower graded virulence.

For thyroid involvement or tumour, you get a swelling near the throat or floor of the mouth, which could be clinically visible extra-orally, and because of an elevation to the floor of the mouth, the fish would find it hard to close its mouth and it will always seemed to be opened.

Tunour can result in either hypo or hyper thyroidism, and the fish would look skiiny despite feeding and appear hyper-active (hyper thyroid) or lethargic (hypo state).

Kee Hoe,

If you can, try to catch the fish and burst the 'bubble' on it, and then observe to see if there's any recurrence. Of course when you do that, yuo might want to add some antibacterial medication in prophylactically.

Cheers,

Kenny

[whuntley]

You may well be correct, Kenny.

This is not a problem I have seen much in my fish, because my iodide levels have always been adequate. I'm going mostly by literature descriptions. Lip tumors do sometimes happen with thyroid disease.

I have often had "busted mouth disease," which is usually a cottony infection by columnaris o/e on the lower lip. The new pictures eliminate that cause, I think.

Wright

[hobbit6003]

You may well be correct, Kenny.

This is not a problem I have seen much in my fish, because my iodide levels have always been adequate. I'm going mostly by literature descriptions. Lip tumors do sometimes happen with thyroid disease.

I have often had "busted mouth disease," which is usually a cottony infection by columnaris o/e on the lower lip. The new pictures eliminate that cause, I think.

Wright

Hi Wright,

Yeah, I don't think it is columnaris either, since the fish is eating well, and the disease would usually cause an ulcerative kind of lesion on the skin, rather than forming a cystic appearance.

Tumours are usually rather fixed to the skin or deeper to the muscular tissue below. However, at the lip region, there's probably only a thin flim of epithelial layer there, and the growth looks more sessile ( a cystic lesion attached to the base only by a thin thread of tissue). That's why I thought this would rule out tumour as a probable diagnosis.

Cheers,

Kenny

[keehoe]

Thanks all. Sorry that the picture causes so much confusion. I will take more photo once i have the rest of the batery charged.

I will feed the fish well for one more week/ spawn before trying to surgically remove the little white thing. Will wrap up the fish with wet towel before doing that.

Also bought a bottle of Trace mineral for cichlids which contain iodine as well.

Thanks Kenny, Wright.