Need help identifying mouth diseases

[Jlynn1001]

Hello,

I work with fish on a daily basis but this is a new one for me! A client has a clownfish with a growth on its mouth making it unable to close its mouth. Somehow it still continues to eat, but I fear the worst for the little guy because whatever this is I dont know how to treat it without proper identification! He was completely normal last week, and no other fish are showing signs of any illness or injury. My best guess was it was injured somehow and now has some sort of horrible infection killing off healthy tissue. Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hello,

I work with fish on a daily basis but this is a new one for me! A client has a clownfish with a growth on its mouth making it unable to close its mouth. Somehow it still continues to eat, but I fear the worst for the little guy because whatever this is I dont know how to treat it without proper identification! He was completely normal last week, and no other fish are showing signs of any illness or injury. My best guess was it was injured somehow and now has some sort of horrible infection killing off healthy tissue. Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

The color and texture looks very much like a rare external fungal disease that I’ve seen in a few marine fish.

Do you know how long it has been there? It could also be a neoplasm.

I don’t suppose you can take a snip of that tissue and look at it under a microscope? That would tell you if it is fungal or not. The fungus will look like tiny threads.

 

[Jlynn1001]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

The color and texture looks very much like a rare external fungal disease that I’ve seen in a few marine fish.

Do you know how long it has been there? It could also be a neoplasm.

I don’t suppose you can take a snip of that tissue and look at it under a microscope? That would tell you if it is fungal or not. The fungus will look like tiny threads.

Hi thank you for your reply! I do have a microscope i could look at it under. Ill try to get a bit of it today. Do you know of a safe way to do that? Its a large enough area i dont think itll be too hard to get a bit of, but should i do a light sedation? Also, you don’t happen to know the name of the rate fungal disease do you? Id love to research further and expand my knowledge! Thank you again!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi thank you for your reply! I do have a microscope i could look at it under. Ill try to get a bit of it today. Do you know of a safe way to do that? Its a large enough area i dont think itll be too hard to get a bit of, but should i do a light sedation? Also, you don’t happen to know the name of the rate fungal disease do you? Id love to research further and expand my knowledge! Thank you again!

Oh, I just responded to your other post....

Sedation would be best, but you should be able to gently hold the fish and give the material a light scrape - you just want a small amount of it. If it is the fungus, if you get a thick mat of it, you won't be able to see the individual threads, which is diagnostic.