3 dead female bettas! Please help!

[Raechal]

I am starting to think it is columnaris again. I am thinking it may be from the white clouds I added to my tank. I didnt quarantine them as they looked healthy and they came from a really good fish store. I've never had a problem with their fish before. I am starting to notice some of my betta's have white lips or white near that area. I am afraid it looks like it is too late for most of my female bettas...It is weird though..none of my other fish are showing any signs of infection besides my bettas. I am treating the tank now with jungle internal bacteria food. Will this get rid of the problem? Should I lower the temperature? I would add salt, but I have clown loaches and glass catfish in my tank. Would this harm them?

 

[Raechal]

Definitely is columnaris again. None of my other fish are showing symptoms besides my female bettas in my 120 gallon but I am treating every fish in there with medicated food and slowly lowering the temperature. I also did a 50% water change. Anything else I can do? Out of 11 bettas, I have 2 left within 48 hours. Columnaris attacks quickly.

 

[Saucy]

OMG, I'm sorry... wow. I guess cambodians must have a weaker immune system (mine was sick from the day I got her and never got better). I'd take the remaining females out and quarantine them, then give them a good treatment of Melafix and salt. I'm guessing one of your white clouds brought it in... the only thing I can think of anyways. Sad way to find out, though... *hugs*

 

[cerulean]

my group of betta girls had columnaris flex or SOMETHING that would kill them within 24 hours a few made it just a little longer, they were also dropping like flies one at a time then i was finally able to spy something on one of them. i tried tetracycline and maracyn and maracyn 2 at the same time but nothing helped, each day a new one was dead. i can't even remember what other meds so many kinds including aquarium salt were tried in desperation. i'm sure someone else will suggest something but the only thing that i found that worked for my situation was jungle fungus clear - bettatalk suggested jungle fungus eliminator but i couldn't find it. i took the remaining 3 girls out of the tank, thoroughly cleaned it and put it away for later since i didn't have any other fish in it. i put each girl in individual 1 gal containers and treated with this stuff for a total of 3 weeks (her site advised using until all fungus has disappeared - it honestly took that long before it no longer showed up even with meds, serious stuff!) MAKE SURE YOU WEAR GLOVES WHEN USING THIS - i've been told it could cause cancer tho it would be good to use gloves all the time anyway. the girls had no heater at this time and were kept at room temp, it definately seemed to slow the stuff down at least a little bit. if i hadn't tried this med the remaining 3 girls wouldn't have made it. they've been off the it for 2 weeks and seem fine. i'm going to wait a little while longer to make sure it doesn't show up again before considering putting them into a bigger tank. it was way too stressful for me when they got sick in that! i do have a vet friend who breeds fish and said these specific bettas, rescues, might have a poor immune system due to inbreeding which is could be why none of the usual remedies worked.

see what others suggest but if all else fails you really might want to try this stuff just in case. i'm really glad i did find it. wish you the best with the girls!

 

[BettaMomma]

Hi.
My tank of girls had a nasty outbreak of columnaris but I caught it early. Everyone was quarantined into their own tank for 10 days. I treated them with excessive amounts of stress coat, colloidal silver (MAJOR amounts of this), low temps and VERY clean water, on top of 2 treatments (back to back) of maracyn. Everyone survived.

Can you quarantine them? If so - I'd give a shot to lowering their temps and getting them dosed up on some stuff right away.

And i'm really sorry for your massive loss.
Columnaris is a VERY nasty disease. I HATE it.

 

[OrkyBetta]

Columnaris took Orchid. It DOES kill quick. Dead in 24 hours. I never knew white lips was a symptom, do you by any chance have any pictures of this, anyone? Just because it's good to know, incase I run into it.

EDIT: when you do get rid of it, boil everything!

 

[Raechal]

I am doing large water changes every couple of days and adding a lot of stress coat a long with jungle medicated food. I have 2 or 3 females left and they are showing no signs of symptoms yet. I just wonder why it killed all the cambodian females and didn't harm any of the darker female bettas or any other fish in the tank. Hmm...kind of weird. I hope I don't lose another one.

 

[Raechal]

I have a 1 gallon aquaview I could isolate one female betta in, but I decided to isolate both of my remaining females in a 5 gallon bucket. I planted it up nicely and the females are getting along fine. I imagin they're too sick to fight with each other. I added salt to their water and feeding them internal bacteria medication. I have noticed a fungus looking growth on one of my betta's tails. Is this columnaris? The other bettas never developed this, but had the saddle-like lesions across the back near the dorsal fin.

I also saw one of my scissor tailed rasboras has a white thing on one of his eyes. It is not like a fungus. Looks more like he was attacked at one time and it just grew back weird. Should I be treating him as well? He is swimming and eating fine and doesn't show any other signs of illness.

 

[Joby]

How awful for you!

Sound like some good advice has been given here from people who have come across columnaris before. Hope your remaining girls pull through

 

[3fsh]

Omg... columnaris is horrible. The one thing that made a difference when my fish had it was overdosing on Stress Coat... I don't know how, but it worked!

R.I.P. Little girls...

 

[Raechal]

Omg... columnaris is horrible. The one thing that made a difference when my fish had it was overdosing on Stress Coat... I don't know how, but it worked!

R.I.P. Little girls...

I just dumped the rest of my bottle of dechlor in my 120 gallon and so I will go out today and pick up a new bottle. Hopefully my two remaining bettas will pull through. I sure hope they do.