titusxander

hello, i am have trouble with 3 of my fish. One of my deformed golden barb has his lower jaw/lip spilt into two movable parts. His mouth is red and each movable section has a white growth on it (attached pics). I have no idea what happened. His tank mates in the 55 gallon is another deformed golden barb (smaller than him), 2 black skirted tetras, 6 white skirted tetras, 1 large mystery fish (looks like a deformed 3inch long neon tetra), 2 small gold fish (under 3 inches), and 2 medium size common plecos (under 6inches). Oh and all of these fish have been living together for atleast 3-5 years. I got the 55 gallon with fish, water, heater, air pump, gravel, filter,decorations, and everything for free about 2 months ago. Nothing has been change since i've had it. The golden barb only developed this about a week ago.

The problem with my female guppy is that her mouth is stuck open and it lookes like a section of it is sunken down. I am also attaching pics but it's hard to see it because of her coloring, zoom will be necessary. She is in the 20 gallon with one other female guppy, a snail, 2 panda cory cats, and 7 neon tetras. It is also in this tank that i have a neon tetra who has the so called "whirling disease". Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Last time i checked all readings in all tanks were good.

mystery fish(pic one)

golden barb(pic two)

comparasion with the other golden barb(pic three)

guppy pic one(pic four)

guppy pic two(pic five)

gremlin

Your mystery fish looks like a tinfoil barb. Unfortunately, I don't know what is wrong with your platy or guppy. Do you have a way to quarantine them until you know what is wrong? You also say your readings are good - what is the exact readings? and what type of test kit are you using? This will help those on here who know more about tropical fish diseases to know what is going on in your tank. Do you have pics of your tanks? and of your other fishies?

Gouramiguy17

I don't think that mystery fish is a tinfoil barb, it sorta looks like a large tetra

TedsTank

The fish with the reddish tail looks like a Columbian Tetra.

titusxander

the readings for the 55 gallon are pH- 7.1 am- 0 Ni-0 and Na- 0. The readings are the same for the 20 gallon except the pH is 7.2. i use the API master test kit. yes i do have pics of the other fish but i don't have time to post them at the moment.

Minnow

Are you sure it's 0 nitrate? Cycled tanks usually have some nitrate, since that is the end product of the nitrogen cycle. Maybe you should do that test again, the API nitrate tests can be tricky. Banging the chemical bottle on a hard surface a few times before adding usually does the trick for me.

iloveengl

Ahhhh, that's why clarification can be so important. You readings should be ammonia & nitrite = 0, nitrAte = 5-20.

Are you sure you mixed that nitrAte bottle well enough - gotta bang it real hard. Did you use bottle #1 and bottle #2 when you tested for ammonia?

titusxander

oh i found my mistake. 55 gallon is 7 and 20 is 5.

titusxander

*Update- My guppy in the 20 gallon now has a white mass thing on her mouth now. I don't know how she got it because it looks different from the one on the deformed golden barb, and i have different nets and everything for each tank. So no cross-contamination from the 55 gallon. No other fish in either tank are showing any symptoms. Oh and what causes "whirling disease" and is it curable?

Minnow

I'm not the best at diagnosing fish, but the "white mass" looks like some sort of fungus to me. Do you have a quarantine tank? If none of the other fish are affected, you might want to move the sick fish away from the healthy ones to stop it from spreading.

I've never heard of whirling disease, sorry I can't help you there.

titusxander

Bad news guys. The female guppy died this morning, and the golden barb's mouth has gotten worse.

Minnow

I'm sorry you lost her

Have you been using any medications for the gold barb?

titusxander

No i haven't. The only medicine that i have is Neomycin and a bottle of stress coat.

titusxander

sad news guys. the golden barb died. i went to the LFS today and showed the fish guy (owner of the LFS) a pic of the golden barb. the first thing he did was say "oh lord" and put his hand over his mouth. (he's one of those fish store owner who is extremly caring about fish) he then told me that the golden barb had one of the worst baterial infections that a barb or tetra can get (he said that mainly serpae tetra and rosy barbs get it) fish guy did say that i must have had perfect water for the golden barb to have lived two weeks with the infection. he said treat it with iodine. i did (was extremley careful not to get it in the gills) but he died an hour later. poor little guy.

iloveengl

OH no. Dang. I'm so sorry.

titusxander

thanks

Je55*e

I'm so sorry about your fish, RIP to the both of them. Good luck with your other fish!

ynaggo

Sorry for the Barb,
If you can sort out some Epsom Salt, it helps get rid of extra unnecessary fluids,
Best of luck