# Mouth Rot Help



## Talmon Firestone (Jan 28, 2010)

Hey Everyone,

On the morning of new years day I noticed something one of my two Blood Red Balloon Platy's mouth that google images ended up informing me was mouth rot (EI A bacterial infection). Info on this suggested that fish can die as quickly as within 24-36 hours from such an infection and the solution is anti-bacterial aquarium medication. Unfortunately no stores were open so I came up with the following solution that so far kind of seems to have helped but I'd love to hear some opinions.

A couple of years back a friend of mine was in Hong Kong and he got a severe intestinal bacterial infection that he couldn't shake for over a week. And then one local guy tells him to drink a particular yogurt drink that they have there that is super high in positive/healthy bacteria. The concept being that bacteria in any eco-system will compete for resources and if you flood the system with the bacteria you WANT there, it should "muscle" out the bad bacteria. So based on that concept, I simply added a large load of "Cycle" brand Biological Aquarium Supplement into my 10g tank. I used the same amount that would be used in a new tank. I also did a 10% water change. Now interestingly enough, the next day, the mouth rot seemed to have been gone. 

I've done a second 10% water change today, two days after the infection and I plan to do 10% water changes ever 2 days for the next week or so. I've also tested my water quality and I have 0 amonia, 0-.25 ppm Nitrite, 0 ppm to some minute amount of Nitrate, and my pH level is somewhere between 7.4-7.6. Apparently that pH level is fine BUT what's interesting is that my pH level was closer to 6.5 in early December so I'm about to read up on what could be causing the slow increase. We'll see if that pH level stays stable now because the jump MAY be because the tank was only a couple of weeks old when I did that last check.

So my point of posting now is that when my one fish was sick, both of them (Although more so the sick one) were hiding amongst the heaviest/densest plant growth in my tank and they were also both unusually skittish to any movement close to the tank. Now two days later, even though the rot seems to be gone and they both look healthy, they are still skittish and spending way more time squeezed in between plants than normal?


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