# My Piranha can't close his mouth.



## Piranha Fan3

I have two piranhas in a 60 gal. tank. One of them appears to have its jaw stuck open. I normally couldn't see into it's mouth but now I can. It just looks odd to me. There appears to be no bite wounds caused by the other fish on its mouth either. The fish is also not eating. I dropped in some fish and the other fish ate it. I seperated the fish and fed them each some shrimp, and still the one with the funny jaw is not eating. This fish normally has a very good appetite, sometimes consuming 3 pieces of shrimp in a feeding. I feed them once or twice a week. I checked my water chemicals and they are all in good shape and i just recently did a water change. Any help is greatly appreciated.


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## Guest

Piranha Fan3 said:


> View attachment 185304
> I have two piranhas in a 60 gal. tank. One of them appears to have its jaw stuck open. I normally couldn't see into it's mouth but now I can. It just looks odd to me. There appears to be no bite wounds caused by the other fish on its mouth either. The fish is also not eating. I dropped in some fish and the other fish ate it. I seperated the fish and fed them each some shrimp, and still the one with the funny jaw is not eating. This fish normally has a very good appetite, sometimes consuming 3 pieces of shrimp in a feeding. I feed them once or twice a week.* I checked my water chemicals and they are all in good shape and i just recently did a water change.* Any help is greatly appreciated.


We really need to see what your test results were. Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia and PH

I enlarged your picture and your fishes entire body looks swollen. The first thing I thought of was Dropsy, yet I have never seen it in a Piranha. I would treat him as a bacterial infection, up the temp. a few degrees add some salt, perhaps some Melafix. I wouldnt try and feed him until the swelling comes down.


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## Piranha Fan3

ksls said:


> View attachment 185304
> I have two piranhas in a 60 gal. tank. One of them appears to have its jaw stuck open. I normally couldn't see into it's mouth but now I can. It just looks odd to me. There appears to be no bite wounds caused by the other fish on its mouth either. The fish is also not eating. I dropped in some fish and the other fish ate it. I seperated the fish and fed them each some shrimp, and still the one with the funny jaw is not eating. This fish normally has a very good appetite, sometimes consuming 3 pieces of shrimp in a feeding. I feed them once or twice a week.* I checked my water chemicals and they are all in good shape and i just recently did a water change.* Any help is greatly appreciated.


We really need to see what your test results were. Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia and PH

I enlarged your picture and your fishes entire body looks swollen. The first thing I thought of was Dropsy, yet I have never seen it in a Piranha. I would treat him as a bacterial infection, up the temp. a few degrees add some salt, perhaps some Melafix. I wouldnt try and feed him until the swelling comes down.
[/quote]

My Ammonia is 0ppm, Nitrite is 0 ppm Nitrate is about 40 ppm, and my PH is 6.0


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## Trigga

Might be hard but try and look inside it's mouth and see if anything is lodged in there.. What type of fish do you feed them? Are they rather boney?


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## Murphy18

Yeah, i was thinking something maybe stuck in there too.

Certainly strange, hope you fix the problem.


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## notaverage

Good luck with this!
keep us updated...my only thought was a dislocated jaw?
Never heard of that before but ya never know.
Also something lodging it open I guess is possible...Good luck again though


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## Guest

IMO there is nothing stuck in that fishes mouth. His lower jaw is super swollen, also the inside of his mouth looks equally as swollen. His eyes look like they are popping and he just looks round overall. I would treat for bacterial infection asap before its to late.


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## Piranha Fan3

Thanks for all the responses. I looked inside his mouth and i can't see anything lodged in there. Overall the fish looks normal and is acting normal, except that he's not eating and his lower jaw is swollen. The last thing i fed them before i noticed his mouth looked funny was shrimp, which i took the shell of because the fish won't eat it. I'll try treating with melafix and raise the temperature of the tank to see if that takes care of it. Are there any bacterial infections that are known to cause this?


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## notaverage

I think everyone is pretty much stumped my friend....Hopefully it gets better.

ksls is the only one with any opinions.


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## Trigga

Piranha Fan3 said:


> Thanks for all the responses. I looked inside his mouth and i can't see anything lodged in there. Overall the fish looks normal and is acting normal, except that he's not eating and his lower jaw is swollen. The last thing i fed them before i noticed his mouth looked funny was shrimp, which i took the shell of because the fish won't eat it. I'll try treating with melafix and raise the temperature of the tank to see if that takes care of it. Are there any bacterial infections that are known to cause this?


I doubt melafix will do anything.. It's for external use and your red obviously has something going on internally if it's got nothing propping it's mouth open..

prazi pro or pimafix may be worth a shot but until someone figures out wtf is going on I don't want to really reccomend anything because ps are sensitive to meds especially when they don't need em.


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## AEROSICE

looks like a broken jaw imo maybe swam straight into the glass at speed if it is i believe they can recover from this.


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## Big Den

Piranha Fan3 said:


> View attachment 185304
> I have two piranhas in a 60 gal. tank. One of them appears to have its jaw stuck open. I normally couldn't see into it's mouth but now I can. It just looks odd to me. There appears to be no bite wounds caused by the other fish on its mouth either. The fish is also not eating. I dropped in some fish and the other fish ate it. I seperated the fish and fed them each some shrimp, and still the one with the funny jaw is not eating. This fish normally has a very good appetite, sometimes consuming 3 pieces of shrimp in a feeding. I feed them once or twice a week.* I checked my water chemicals and they are all in good shape and i just recently did a water change.* Any help is greatly appreciated.


We really need to see what your test results were. Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia and PH

I enlarged your picture and your fishes entire body looks swollen. The first thing I thought of was Dropsy, yet I have never seen it in a Piranha. I would treat him as a bacterial infection, up the temp. a few degrees add some salt, perhaps some Melafix. I wouldnt try and feed him until the swelling comes down.
[/quote]

My Ammonia is 0ppm, Nitrite is 0 ppm Nitrate is about 40 ppm, and my PH is 6.0
[/quote]

I would check those water parameters, at 6.0 pH you will get a false reading.


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## Trigga

What?


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## spoondc2

STRANGE THE MOUTH IS WIDE OPEN N YOU CANT SEE ANY TEETH?


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## Grosse Gurke

ksls said:


> IMO there is nothing stuck in that fishes mouth. His lower jaw is super swollen, also the inside of his mouth looks equally as swollen. His eyes look like they are popping and he just looks round overall. I would treat for bacterial infection asap before its to late.


I agree...the fish does not look normal. Both the lower and upper jaw look swollen to me. I would treat him for a bacterial infection as well. Go to a good lfs and see what they have. I would stay away from the off the shelf stuff and see if they have anything behind the counter. I had good results with Kanamycin....it treats both gram-positive and negative gram-bacteria. This will also kill off any good bacteria in your filters&#8230;so you will most likely need to recycle the tank if you go this route.


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## JustJoshinYa

^^^ gg has the right idea, whenever i buy meds i dont get it off the LFS shelves i ask them if they have anything they use to treat their stock, most the time they will show you what they use and sell you some, just be careful most of their stuff is more powerful or potent than the common cures.


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## Trigga

put him in a ten gallon med tank if you are going to med him with some behind the counter stuff. You dont want to harm the other ps you got in there.


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## CLUSTER ONE

ksls said:


> STRANGE THE MOUTH IS WIDE OPEN N YOU CANT SEE ANY TEETH?


There under a lip and thats normal. Just like humans if your opening your mouth fully your lips cover your teeth unless your flaring your lips outwards. They are still there though.


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## Lexx

As far as teeth here's a pic of what happens when 2 of my P's decided to munch the same piece of smelt,,,, grew back amazingly fast !!









Has the swelling increased?


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## wpviper

ok this is wierd my minni P has the same thing going on right now I think it is stress or he hit the glass real hard because I put a baby convict in for him to eat or just more fish in the tank and the convict has been niping at his fins and stressing him out and today he hasnt closed his mouth (convict is geting feed to manny)


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## wpviper

ok vary quick update lol he shut his mouth wial swiming from the net so Im thinking it was just stress did just just add fish or change something in your tank


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## Demon Darko

Has he eaten yet? How about activity?


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