Sick fish

[wookiefever]

Hello everyone,

I recently got a yellow eye kole tang and he is not doing so good. It appears to me that he has a white puffy mouth with dead skin. I'm am not sure if that is what it is though so I have added a picture.

Please if you could ID what it is and how to deal with it that would be great.

Thank you

 

[billdogg]

I would guess that it rammed the glass/rock too hard and busted it's lip. As long as it's eating well I would think it will heal in short order.

 

[wookiefever]

Okay so it's not a parasite or anything? I have not seen him eat. He never goes after food or touches the nori. But he does peck at rocks periodically.

 

[jrr98002]

It doesn't look like a parasite, but some sort of mouth trauma as you suspected. Unfortunately, Ctenochaetus genus (the bristletooths - of which the Kole eye is one) don't always fair well from mouth trauma. The bristletooths are very delicate and damage can often spell a slow death to starvation from them. That's why it's never a good idea to net them and always container capture, for example. Sure hope your lil guy pills through though. It's always possible he'll survive, it's just they're at a disadvantage as far as mouth trauma is concerned.

 

[wookiefever]

Anything I can do to promote healing?

 

[wookiefever]

Well in the past hour this happened....

 

[Sapelo]

Beginning to look like something far more serious than mouth trauma.
How long have you had the fish and what were your QT procedures?

 

[wookiefever]

I have only had him 3 days. I know y'all going to flip but my QT was a freshwater dip. All the other fish are perfectly fine

 

[scooter31707]

I remember reading on this forum awhile back about Kole Tangs having mouth problems. it stated you have to be careful and pay attention when you purchase one as they come in like that. I can't remember if it is a certain illness or it was from them grazing a lot that creates the trauma.