Tilapia Can't close Mouth

[Luther Smith]

Do Tilapia often get the condition shown by the top fish below. These Tilapia are about 7-8 inches long. the upper one can no longer close its mouth. It seems normal in all other respects. I noticed that it lost a lot of pellets when trying to eat. It obviously put extra effort into gulping to catch and swallow the pellet in one move. These two Tilapia have been removed from the Aquaponic tank and placed in the 50 gal. classroom tank.

This is the second Tilapia that has had this problem. The other one grew well and was harvested when it was around 9 inches long.

Do others see this  anomaly?

[Pam DeLong]

Any update on your fish with lock-jaw?

[Luther Smith]

She still seem healthy, though the mouth never closes.

[Pam DeLong]

Sure hope it clears up...been doing a bit of searching on a lot of search engine...not a lot of info out there. Reasons varied from pebble pecking, to locking lips, to being aggressively chased into the walls of the tank. I seem to recall one person saying they gently forced the mouth open a little further and managed to pop it back in place, but not sure how that works.

Are you able to have her in a separate tank in case it was from aggressive behavior?

[Luke Smith]

She is in the classroom 50 Gal tank with one other tilapia one 6 inch goldfish and one 4 inch convict. She stays with the larger tilapia and they seem to get along fine the goldfish ignores the others. Sometimes the convict make advances but the larger fish don't seem to be very afraid of him. Though they will face him and back peddle a little.

I took her out of the tank and tried to open and close the mouth. At first it would not close, but after massaging it open and closed it loosened up and would close.  When I put her back in the tank she kept it open.

[Pam DeLong]

Well...maybe make it a daily therapy? 2-3 times a day?