goldfish mouth stuck shut

Question
QUESTION: My goldfish cannot open his mouth. Whilst waiting for their 120l tank to be ready, my 2 goldfish had to wait in a bowl.
They caught a white fluffy fungus and I assume this is what caused their mouths to stick shut.
Even after anti fungal treatment, the other fish died. This fish seems fine now though, but still cannot open his mouth.
Should I try and unstick it for him?
Do you know of any other cases like this, and have there been any successful outcomes.

ANSWER: Hi Debbie,

Fungus could cause this but it would be visible to the naked eye, also your fish would probably be a goner by now. What kind of substrate are they kept on? (ie, fine gravel, gravel, sand etc) also, have you feed them peas recently??

Tom

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: He's on gravel now, but there was no substrate in the bowl where the problem started.
He was fed only 'Supa Fish Food' and 'Tetra Goldfish Granules', these were both too large for him to manage, so we crushed them.
( He now has flakes and a tablet in case he can nibble off some particles.)
Could he have some food stuck in his mouth, or would this cause it to become stuck open instead?
Despite water changes, the food at the bottom of the bowl did get fluffy with the fungus.
The 'Supa' seemed quite sharp and spiky, he might have damaged his mouth on that.

ANSWER: Hi Debbie,

I've heard of fungus fusing a mouth shut, hard foods can also cause the mouth to literally lock shut.....however, because both fungi and hard foods are involved with this fish I can't pinpoint exactly which one is to blame.

So we'll deal with both.

First and foremost his mouth has got to be prized open. This isn't a particularly nice job but it has to be done to prevent death. Catch him and then hold him a paper towel, make sure you keep his body moist and dip him back into the aquarium every 30 seconds or so. Using a pair of tweezers try opening the mouth, if you can see anything stuck try to remove it carefully. I'll be honest your fish is going to hate you for this, and it's likely he won't be himself for a few minutes after you perform this rather unusual routine.

Secondly, Fungi spores are abundant within everyone's aquarium. However, they only ever attack weakend and/or stressed fish. Make sure you are religious with water changes and filter maintenance. Goldfish are particularly mucky and produce huge amounts of ammonia so they quickly poison their environment.

I also suggest switching his diet routine, flake foods claim they enhance colouring and provide extra vitamins blah blah blah but it's marketing nonsense. Like 'dermatologically tested' on a shower gel bottle. There are various arguments about the appropriate diet for a Goldfish. However, the people that swear by flake foods are usually narrow minded Americans who believe we all have tea with the Queen.

Switch both of them onto a diet consisting of frozen green foods supplemented by either Daphnia or Bloodworm once or twice a week. Of course, Goldfish are omnivores but their diet swings more towards vegetation in the wild. If they come across bloodworm lurking in the mud they will devour it but they won't actually hunt for it.

Lastly, I praise you for being the first person to have an appropriately size tank for two Goldfish. Make sure there is good surface water agitation for optimum oxygenation, Goldfish are notorious for being vulnerable to low water oxygen.

Good luck, any probs let me know......

Tom

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thankyou for that excellent and detailed advice.
I have one last question please.
I've added some 'Tetra Safestart' ie live bacteria to the tank, (due to using anti fungal/bacterial medicine which may have killed my filter bacteria )
It now looks like a snowstorm in there.
I had added this to the original bowl, where everything got very fungussy very fast, despite daily water changes.
Is there a chance that this could have originally caused the mouth fungus? and should I do some rapid water changes now?
ie can this type of product get or cause fungus problems?

Answer
Hi,

Safestart is basically a cocktail of the bacteria that builds up in your filter once it is fully cycled. It basically kickstarts your tank so you can introduce livestock immediately. To be honest I've never encountered any problems with using this type of product. It should strengthen the environment they're in rather than weakening the fish and allowing fungi to hit.

However, I've never used it in a fish bowl. Safestart essentially buries itself within the filter and matures the pads straightaway. Assuming there was no filter in the bowl, it hasn't got anywhere to go so the bacteria is literally floating around. It's an odd one that I've never come across but it could be that it's weakened the protective coating on your fish and then fungi has found it's way in.

I wouldn't worry too much about it being in a filtered tank, it's never caused any problems in my experience. The snowstorm effect should settle within a few days, assuming this is a newly set-up tank it's probably nothing more than a 'bacteria bloom' it doesn't look very nice but it's harmless to the fish.

Tom