My fish has cotton mouth. Please help

Okay i've just diagnosed my fish and I think they have cotton mouth. I just had one guppy die yesterday, I noticed that his lips were all swollen and white and I took that guppy out and temporarily put him in another tank. So then I did some research and found out that it was cotton mouth, but my guppy died in a few hours. So this morning I woke up and I noticed my balloon molly's lips getting all swollen on one side and it looks very white and cotton-y
So I did lots of research and heres what i've found out so far.
1.lower the water temperature
I live in a pretty hot country so normal water temp here is about 30 to 31*C so I took some bags of ice and put it in the tank for awhile and managed to reduce the temp to 29*C, gonna reduce it some more in awhile since I heard that its bad to have a sudden drastic change in the water temp for your fish. Because higher temperatures will spread the bacteria even faster.

2.Adding Methylene Blue to your water -
Apparently I do not have methylene blue BUT what I do have is an antI spot treatment for treating ich, And its active ingredient is Methylene Blue so I was wondering if I could add a couple of drops to my tank, then again I already added a couple of drops.

3. Adding salt - I've added some aquarium salt to my tank.
how does aquarium salt actually help in this situation?

4. Water changes -
i've also found some info saying that you should do lots of water changes but they didnt specify how much and how often?

So then I took out my tetras and my live plants and the fish that didnt seem to be affected by cotton mouth and put them in another tank to avoid the cotton mouth spreading because I think 3 of my fish already have it.

Any tips guys? it would be appreciated!

 

I am not 100% sure but I don't think the ICH treatment will help the cotton mouth. Salt helps in several ways, by decreasing stress on fish and also by healing wounds. If you have salt tolerant fish then it is never a bad idea to have some aquarium salt. The beest thing I have found for cotton mouth is Melafix. It is an antibacterial medicine that works pretty well and is fairly safe

 

I won't be able to go the the pet shop any time soon that's the problem. Tmr I have piano class and after that I will be going to another state for about 2 days !
but I really hope the methylene blue in the ich medication would help =/

guys come on..any one?

guess no one can help

 

Good morning,

I would recommend Mela Fix and Pima Fix in combination without the use of salt.

Salt isn't necessary in a freshwater tank. It may end up doing more harm than good:



The great salt myth

Ken

 

Good articles Ken and I do agree for the most part. I have used salt in the past to help with wounds and I always felt that it helped, but could have just gotten better on its own for all I know. I just recently started using mela fix, I love the fact that it is a natural treatment. I use to also use salt for ich treatment along with heat but have moved to using heat alone and it heals just as fast so proof that salt is absolutely unnecessary for that. But I do have no love at all for any ich medication. I have used heat and salt for over 10 years (and recently just heat) with a 100% cure rate and no ill affects or death to any fish. I used quICK cure once in a pinch when I did not have a heater in a 30 gallon and lost 3 fish in 2 days, so needless to say I will never use again.

 

Cotton mouth needs to be treated with the correct medication you could try marycyn r some other type of antibiotic or like others have posted, melafix. If you are going away for a couple of days whatever you use, you will have to find someone who can continue the treatment for you.

Treating with the wrong medicine but hoping it will help isn't the best thing you can do, it could further stress an already weakened fish. You mentioned using a couple of drops.....is that the amount you should put in for your tank size?

Also how much salt did you put in the tank?

 

I had put in 1 table spoon of salt for 4 gallons
And my sister is helping me do the water changes and keeping the temperature low. According to what she's told me yesterday. The fish under the ich treatment definitely got better. His lips aren't swollen and its not fuzzy anymore. Don't know how long more I should keep up this treatment before I can put all my fish together again

 

Good morning,

After treatment and the fish have healed, I would wait 2 weeks before putting all of the fish back together in the same tank, to be on the safe side. They may have been weakened and the extra time may help them to regain some strength. Sometimes ill fish or weakened fish may be picked on by others that are not or have not been ill.

I would recommend 50% water changes when it's time to do them. Freshwater goes such a long way in helping your fish to heal. The new water should be as close to the same temperature as the water remaining in the tank to prevent temperature shock and possibly ICH.

I'm glad to hear that your are seeing improvement in your fish! Keep us posted please.

Ken

 

thank you aquarist48 =)
I've just reached home and so far my sebastian(dalmatian balloon molly) looks great. His lips aren't puffy or fuzzy anymore and he's back to pecking the gravel, the wall of the tank and the rocks
Should I continue vacuuming the gravel and do water changes and continue the same treatment(salt + ich medication) everyday for 2 weeks? just to be safe? I don't want any of that bacteria left in my tank >_< Its sad to see 2 if my guppies die from it
or should I just continue the treatment for a couple more days, then stop with all the medication(though I do plan to carry on putting salt it, but I'll stop once I reunite all my fish )

 

the fish that is somewhat cured of cotton mouth now has ich! and I only noticed it yesterday because its hard to noticed since hes black and white =/. oh god, this is the worst case of ich i've ever seen on any of my fish ! now the treatment is to raise the temperature which is the exact opposite to counter cotton mouth!