Bloom

HI, I have just joined and very worried about my red rainbow fish. It is about 4 inches long, mature in body shape etc and otherwise healthy.
For the past 5 days it has had its mouth open to the max. It never shuts it at all. It's lower jaw seems to move slightly but the top one not at all. It's throat has movement in it and there isnt anything stuck in there. It cant eat and no doubt will die soon but I have no idea what to do. It is my largest fish and all the others are perfectly fine.

Please help
Jenny

capekate

Hello Bloom and welcome to fishlore. Sorry to hear about your rainbow..
Even tho you say there is nothing stuck in its throat, it sure sounds as if there is by your description of what is going on. Rainbows are notorious for having very small throat openings and come with warnings that they can indeed choke on large fish food pellets. I do not have any suggestions and I hope if it does actually have something stuck in its throat that it will dissolve soon, but this has been going on for five days. Poor lil thing..
wish I could be of some help to you and your fishy.

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore.

Have you tried chasing him around the tank a bit? We had this happen with an Ameca Splenden and chasing him like that got the stuck piece of food loose. It took about a week after that for his mouth to fully heal. Small foods like daphnia might be easier for him to eat.

Is there any white fuzzy areas or anything in/around the mouth looking like a fungus? That can cause this also sometimes.

Bloom

Thanks very much for your replies. I am very happy to report my fish's mouth has now closed and he is eating well (actually more keenly than I had ever noted before). The day after my initial query I thought he was bound to be a goner. The top line of his 'snout' and the area running over either side of his 'scull' went all white. Imn a last ditch, I caught (which yes, involved chasing him) him and tried to shut his mouth (was easy enough to do. It didnt stay shut though but the next day was slightly better and twio days laster was shut as normal.... and now the whiteness is fading, completly off his 'snout' and half gone from around the top of his head.
So good news for me and my fish!!

There was no white fungal looking material.
I felt I could see right down his throat as it looked stuck open along with his mouth and could see no food.
All's well that ends well as they say, just hope it doesnt happen again.
I do feed flake food but also shrimp and spirilina disc's which maybe he could get a partially eaten one stuck as he my biggest fish.

COBettaCouple

I'm glad to hear that he made it.