External symptoms of white mouth disease
- Whitish, moldy down in the mouth region
- Whitish patches on scalp and back
- Initially small whitish spots with reddened edges
- Lips dissolve.
- Glue gill leaves.
- Gill leaves dissolve.
- White, mold-like spots on the edges of the scales
- White moldy patches on fins
- The edges of the fins decompose.
- skin fungus.
Behave
Internal symptoms of white mouth disease
photos
Photos: Jenni Daus
Platy with white mouth disease
Photo: Jutta Kurfirst
Red-eyed moenkhausia with white mouth disease
Photo: Wolfgang
Emperor tetra with columnaris
Photos: Norbert Heidbüchel
Skin necrosis in a butterfly cichlid (female) presumably due to columnaris
Photos: Gerhard Fischer
Silverside with skin necrosis due to columnaris
Photos: Ralph
Mailed catfish with white mouth disease and fin rot
Photos: Carola Kuhlmann
Platy with large white spot, probably due to columnaris
Photos: Guido Banholt
Purple perch with white spots, some of which looked like wounds. Probably caused by columnaris or similar bacterial pathogens. The third photo shows the healthy other side for comparison.
Photos: Newgirl (Forum)
2 guppy females with white mouth disease and fin rot.
Photos: Hannah Parow-Souchon
Pygmy tiger loach with a very fast running columnaris. It only took a day from the first signs to the necessary euthanasia.
Photos: Matthias Aulbach
Mosaic Gourami with Columnaris.
Catfish with a strong bacterial infection, probably columnaris or similar pathogens. The pathogens may have been brought into the aquarium with butterfly cichlids. The butterfly cichlids died. The catfish was treated with esha 2000 and salt. However, it is questionable whether these remedies will still help at this stage of the disease. In loricariids, there is also a very rapid bacterial infection, which must also be taken into account in such cases.
Photo: Matthew
Rodent catfish probably with columnaris or similar pathogens.
Photos: Kevin Schunk
Red-eyed Moenkhausia with columnaris.
Photos: Klaus Dreymann
Heros cf. efasciatus with columnaris.
Photos: Julia Geyer (Forum)
Guppies with columnaris. Details can be found in the forum under Fish/Guppy causes problems.
Photo: Marina
Guppy with columnaris.
Photos: Marina
Green neon, Microrasbora kubotai, with columnaris.
Photos: Manja Kessler
Hemichromis guttatus with columnaris. In an aquarium with 3 Guttatus males and 1 female, 2 males did not eat and appeared to develop changes in their mouths. It looked thicker and white. The animals also lost color. They were really red before. Possibly they also suffered from intestinal flagellates in addition to columnaris.
Photos: Bernd Neu
Zebra cichlid with columnaris. The animal was adopted fingernail size. After 2 1/2 years he was a bit bigger and heavier than a «colleague» who had died about 6 weeks before the recordings. This was 19.5 cm long and weighed 150 grams.
causes
White mouth disease is also called mouth mold or mouth rot designated. In the English-speaking world one speaks of the cotton-wool disease. Another name is saddle patch disease. Live-bearing fish are primarily affected. It is a bacterial disease caused by the bacterium Flavobacterium columnare. The technical term for the disease is accordingly columnaris.
The bacteria are found in the mucus of healthy and diseased fish. As the German disease names say, white spots that look like mold tend to form on the mouth, on the edges of the scales and on the fins. Often the infestation spreads from the mouth or fins to the whole body until the skin is covered with numerous white-grey ulcers. With heavy infestations, the lips dissolve and the fins decompose until only the fin rays remain. With a magnifying glass you can see short, narrow threads on the mouth, fins and scale edges that look like mold threads.
The white patches can be thickened layers of mucus on the skin, dead tissue, or secondary fungal infections.
The bacteria form small heaps or columns on the edge of the affected tissue and in the mucus of the skin and gills, which can be seen under the microscope. The bacteria are very slender and perform slow, gliding, crawling movements.
If the gills are also affected, they can stick together due to heavy mucus formation or swelling. The gills dissolve and the fish breathe unusually quickly due to the lack of oxygen supply.
A distinction is made between an acute and a chronic form of white mouth disease. In the chronic form, the course of the disease is slow, the white spots only gradually get bigger before the affected fish die after a long time. In the acute form, the white spots spread very quickly and the fish die after a short time.
Outside of fish, the pathogen can survive for a long time in warm and organically polluted water.
Cause of the onset of the disease are usually unfavorable housing conditions and consequently fish weakened by stress factors. The disease occurs more frequently at higher temperatures between 25° and 32° C.
treatment suggestions
Salt baths or potassium permanganate dissolve the fish’s mucous membrane with the bacteria it contains. The disease can also be treated with commercially available remedies. However, if the keeping conditions are not optimized, the disease will recur again and again, because the bacteria can survive for a long time in warm and organically polluted water, even outside the fish.
In soft, slightly acidic and clean water, the bacteria live significantly shorter outside of the fish. The treatment can therefore be assisted by slightly acidifying the water if the fish can tolerate it. Lowering the temperature can also be useful.
The use of a UV clarifier helps at least as a support. In some cases this form of treatment was sufficient.
Treatment with antibiotics is risky because they are not sure to help and the condition can be made worse.
The treatment must be carried out as soon as possible so that internal organs are not affected. If internal organs are affected, treatment with antibiotics is often the only solution, despite the associated risks. The active substance trimethoprim z. B. can at least curb the course.