Broken lips

Question
QUESTION: Hello expert, i hope you can help me. Well i have a goldfish that has an injured mouth. Im not sure what went wrong but one day he just injured his mouth and then when i transfer him to clean his tank he sometimes gets caught in the net because of his messed up lips and makes them even worse to a point that he no longer has lips and i can literally see the insides of where his lips use to be. I have tried so hard to keep him and the other 6 fish healthy and happy and he used to be fine until this lip injury occured. All the others are fine it's just him and his mouth that has got me worried. He wants to eat the floating food pellets that i feed him with but due to the mouth thing he cant eat like a regular fish. He can't eat at all. He tries so hard to eat but he cant because he has no lips and his mouth is literally gone and he has no more suction to suck in his food like the others. and i can only see a little hole for his mouth and i'm sure i'm not suppose to see that. It looks like sumthing literally chopped off his mouth. Its really bad. Can you please help me and is there anyway that he will be able to get his mouth back. Im going to attach a picture hopefully you can see what im talking about but if you cant i will try to get you another one. Hopefully i gave you enough information to help me out.PLEASE HELP!!!!

ANSWER: Hi Lien;

It sounds like he has had an infection known as "mouth rot". Does it look as though there is infection on the area? Redness, whitish or off-white discoloration? Any fuzzy or cottony areas? There was no attachment to your question so without seeing it myself I can't tell what's going on. Please send a followup question with a photo, as well as information about your tank such as;

Tank size
How many fish are in the tank?
How big are the fish? What kind of fish?
What kind of filtration?
How often is the filter cleaned?
How often do you clean the tank?
How much water do you replace when you clean the tank?
How long has the tank been set up?

All this information is very important. It may help us find the cause of the problem and help me to suggest ways to improve the environment for your fish to heal as fast as possible.

Let me know as soon as you can...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

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


broken mouth   QUESTION: no it doesn't look like there is an infection. just a messed up mouth. it isnt fuzzy and there are no cottony areas. here are the answer to your questions to the best of my ability:
size: 30 gallons
7 fish
about 5 inches, goldfish
standard aquarium filter that filters throughout the whole time
filter cleaned when tank gets cleaned
clean the tank once a week
i replace all the water
tank has been set up for at least 3 yrs

Answer
Hi Lien;

It's very hard to see him in the photo even after lightening it up with a photo editor. It does look like mouth rot though, a very serious bacterial infection that is eating away the tissue of his face. Your fish needs antibiotics. I would isolate him to another tank for treatment. I don't know if medication in the water would help him at this point. You could try them, they are available at fish stores. His infection is very advanced though and he may need antibiotic injections from the vet if he is to survive. I don't know if he will be able to ever recover the use of his mouth and eat though. I wish I had better news. It just looks very bad and the damage is extensive. So sorry.

Here are a couple of pages with more info about mouth rot;

http://tinyurl.com/raxzkh

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=16+2160&aid=584

Your tank is simply overcrowded so his immune system isn't very strong. Just a minor break in the skin will cause these infections under such crowded conditions so your others are in danger too. Goldfish make a lot of waste so they need strong filtration and plenty of space. Just one goldfish of 5 inches needs at least ten gallons of space, 15 or 20 gallons per fish is better. That means you need at least a 70 to 140 gallon for your 7 fish. Here is a web page about what goldfish need and why it's so important;

http://www.firsttankguide.net/goldfish.php

I hope he gets better...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins