# help.. tetra with mouth constantly open..



## rhymon78

I noticed yesterday that one of my glow lights mouth is stuck in an open position all of the time, none of the others are like this just the one. 

I have been dropping in sinking pellets for the corys and other substrate fish, but the glow lights and danios snatch them up too! but the glow lights seem to hold them in their mouth like a football for ages, maybe in hope they will break down? they are too big for them to be honest. maybe this tetra has locked his jaw out trying to eat the pellets?

has anyone else experienced this? is there anything we can do? will it kill him? 

here is a picture of the poor bugger.


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## GwenInNM

rhymon78 said:


> I noticed yesterday that one of my glow lights mouth is stuck in an open position all of the time, none of the others are like this just the one.
> 
> I have been dropping in sinking pellets for the corys and other substrate fish, but the glow lights and danios snatch them up too! but the glow lights seem to hold them in their mouth like a football for ages, maybe in hope they will break down? they are too big for them to be honest. maybe this tetra has locked his jaw out trying to eat the pellets?
> 
> has anyone else experienced this? is there anything we can do? will it kill him?
> 
> here is a picture of the poor bugger.


It won't kill him as long as he can eat. I had a dwarf rainbow that happened to, and there is really nothing you can do. You can try netting it, and quickly and gently close the mouth, and hope it will lock back in that position, but that is stressful. Just give it time and see if he gets it closed himself. In the meantime, feed him flakes or food that is very small and he can swim eat it that way. 

Also, you may want to place the sinking pellets on the floor to keep the others from grabbing it, though mine do that too, if I don't use a tube to drop the pellets down to substrate. You can use a tube from a syphon if you have that.

Good luck

Gwen


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## Byron

Agree.


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## rhymon78

Thanks guys,

Leave him for a few days see if things resolve on their own, then maybe try manually putting it back. Although I can imagine the stress from that would probably be worse than the problem in the first place! 

Cheers.


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## TAS4

hi:
I feel bad for the poor fish...Pellet food was recommended to me as a fish neophyte as 'the best' in terms of contributing to ammonia in tank, but I notice that my danios have trouble breaking the pellets down & also hold in their mouths for long periods of time & I now give them a combo of pellets & flakes. I wish your fish well & hope for a swift recovery.


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## rhymon78

Ok, so today I decided I would try and catch the open mouthed fish and try and gently touch its mouth to shut the jaw... but I just could not catch him! i tried for a while and gave up figuring it wasn't worth stressing him and all the other fish out waving the net around in the tank after him.. so I guess he will just have to live with it..


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## CatSoup

rhymon78 said:


> Ok, so today I decided I would try and catch the open mouthed fish and try and gently touch its mouth to shut the jaw... but I just could not catch him! i tried for a while and gave up figuring it wasn't worth stressing him and all the other fish out waving the net around in the tank after him.. so I guess he will just have to live with it..


If he's healthy enough to outrun you, I bet he'll be alright.


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## GwenInNM

TAS4 said:


> hi:
> I feel bad for the poor fish...Pellet food was recommended to me as a fish neophyte as 'the best' in terms of contributing to ammonia in tank, but I notice that my danios have trouble breaking the pellets down & also hold in their mouths for long periods of time & I now give them a combo of pellets & flakes. I wish your fish well & hope for a swift recovery.



You can put pellets in a bit of tank water to soften them, and then put them in the tank. 

Gwen


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## Boise1024

Happened to one of my White Cloud Mountain Minnow. Poor fish looked exactly like yours, didn't seem affected by it, he was even able to feed properly (flake and freeze-dried mysis shrimp). After about two weeks his jaw was back to normal. I don't know what happened to put it in this condition, nor how it got back to normal.


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