# Red around the mouth on a pictus catfish



## garyk19 (Oct 17, 2009)

Hello and thank you in advance for any advise on this. I have a 55 gallon fish tank that I recently moved when I purchased a new house. I transfered the majority of the original water, lightly cleaned the base of the tank, and kept the filters in. My tank has been set up here around two weeks. In the tank I have two Pictus catfish, a Pictus cory, chinese algea eater, two angel fish, 4 neon swordtails and 2 orange fish that I can not recall the name of anymore. I have had the tank and most of the fish for 9 months now. 

However after I fed the fish tonight and was about to turn off the light I noticed on of my catfish hiding a little more then normal. This one is about 6 months old and the smaller of my two. When I got a good look at it on the corners of its mouth it was red. Its whiskers were also more white and shorter. My large one also has more whitening of the whiskers I think, but I am not 100% sure. I tried looking up what this red around the mouth could be and how to treat it, however I could not find anything. Does anyone know what this might be?

Hopefully this picture helps. Thank you again for any help!
002.jpg picture by garyk19 - Photobucket


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Welcome to the forum, Gary. I'm glad you decided to join us. Poor pictus. I have one and I think they are great fish. I have no idea what it could be. Hopefully someone else will.


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## garyk19 (Oct 17, 2009)

I looked through a few things I found here, is Enteric Red Mouth something that can develop in a freshwater tank? From the descriptions I found it sounds exactly like that, but everything I found online about it was in trout and other river type fish, and caused by a bacteria.


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## Twistersmom (Dec 9, 2008)

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Do you have a water testing kit? How does the water test for ammonia and nitrites? It is possible that the tanks cycle was disturbed during the move. Test the water to make sure both ammonia and nitrites are zero or at a safe level. Post the results of the test, if you can. 

The catfish looks like it has a bacterial infection of some sort. Sometimes bacterial infections can be brought on by poor water quality. The results of the test, will help determine the best coarse of action to take. If you are unsure of your levels, I would go ahead and do a water change. Bacterial infections can sometimes go away on their own, with daily water changes. 

Maracyn and maracyn-Two used together, are meds that I have safely used to treat bacterial infections. Although, these meds will not work if there is a problem with ammonia or nitrites. 

How are the other fish acting? Do the others appear healthy and disease free?


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## garyk19 (Oct 17, 2009)

All the other fish are still acting perfectly fine and normal. I did check my water last night amonia and nitrites were just a hair above zero, but I also changed one of my three carbon filters the day before. After searching pet stores and fish stores I finaly found something that would treat most bacterial infections as well as redmouth. Hopefully this should cover most all of my bases.

And thank you both for the welcome.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Please keep us posted on your pictus. Personally, I have such fondness for pictus. I hope your gets better soon!


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## garyk19 (Oct 17, 2009)

Well, treatment 3 of 5 has been given. The red seems to have gone away some. He still isnt ventureing out of his hide spot much. My larger 9 month old one goes over about every 20 minutes and nudges him to get him out and swimming around a little. Here is hoping that it gets better.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

My pictus is healthy and he almost never comes out of his cave! Glad to hear the red is lessening. 
Cute avatar, BTW.


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## garyk19 (Oct 17, 2009)

Well, I think he is feeling better. He is doing his weird catfish things. Swimming across the top of the tank upside down, pretending to be an algea eater on the side of the tank. The red is still there some. It looks worse from across the room, but when you get close to him it doesnt look near as bad as it did.


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## Twistersmom (Dec 9, 2008)

Hoping the catfish makes a full recovery for you! Glad to hear he is feeling better!


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## garyk19 (Oct 17, 2009)

Well, unfortunatly he didn't make it. Last treatment was on Wednesday. The red soars all went away, as did his long whiskers. This afternoon he was doing some swimming and playing then at feeding time tonight I saw him in the back corner of the tank upside down. Once I got him out I saw that the soars even though the red had all healed left big openings around his mouth. Aparently the red mouth was just to far along by the time I noticed it.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

I'm sorry you lost your fish. :-(


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## Twistersmom (Dec 9, 2008)

Such sad news. :-(


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