At A Total Loss

[Brette]

I had a columnaris outbreak that may have been introduced by plants as well. Very frustrating. I used a bit of salt and Maracyn (antibacterial stuff for the water available online and in north america) to clear it up. I also ended up taking apart my entire tank and cleaning it with white vinegar to make sure the columnaris was gone but this isn't always necessary and I was probably being overly cautious.

Good luck and don't give up. I lost about half of my fish from this but the other half are alive and doing really well now.

 

[Brette]

eyes covered in white and now its on there bodies as well as tails/fins... tetras are still fine. i may have to euthenize the rainbows

This is columnaris. You definetely need antibacterial stuff for your water, don't euthanize yet, try putting them in some salt water. The white fluff goes away very quickly once it is treated. I thought some of mine were goners too but give them a chance with the meds and salt.

As i said, if you can get your hands on some maracyn, it works well. it is an antibacterial treatment. There must be something similar if you're in the UK.

 

[Just_Another_One]

thanks for all the help guys but im sorry to report i did go ahead and euthenize them last night... they rainbows were absoluty covered in white and there fins were being eaten away as well as there eyes as well some of theyre scales were sticking out a bit so i guess they contracted dropsy as well.... it wasnt looking good at all...

then the poor tetras went down so fast there eyes were all white and gross i couldnt stand to see them in pain like that and keep them till friday in that state so i put them out of there misary as well ...

it was extremely hard to do especially for my blackies since they were my very first fish going on 2 years ago. best fish i ever had.. the hated all the new fish i added but eventually they would accept them after a day or 2 and leave them alone.

now all i have left in my 65G tank is one lonley gold gourami and 1 BN pleco who has decided to stop eating his wafers(will try some veggies with him tonight) and a whole bunch of plants..

its amazing how fast it wiped out most of my tank(6 rainbows. 6 black skirt tetras and 8 zebra danios) i would of never dremt it could happen like that.

anyways im gonna wait a bit till i get more fish and do lots and lots of water changes in the meantime to get rid of anything left in the tank, this way i can also think good and hard about my new stocking ideas...ehehehehe

just wondering if my "good" bacteria will be able to survive with just 2 fish in such a large tank... i do have some minnows and some head and taillight tetras(i think) in a 10 gallon tank with cories and a flame gourami i could add to the 65g to keep up with the food for the good bacteria. on second thought maybe thats not a good idea, dont want to cross contaminate with healthy tanks that would be horrible to loose those fish as well.

 

[WILDER]

If you use the same equipment on each tank you must steralise it after use.
Sorry about the fish that you had to end there suffering bless them.

 

[Just_Another_One]

ya i make sure with my buckets and other stuff used that i keep all dirty sick fish water out of the bucket that i use to fill up my other 2 tanks.. and i just throw the net away and other scoops and stuff that i used for the sick fish since there so cheap...

how would i go about disinfecting the hospital tank so i can bring it back down to storage? any sug gestions???

i could haul it all outside and wash it down with a hose and bleach but last time i did that i killed a whole bunch of worms.....

 

[WILDER]

I use bleach then rinse very well.
Then let it dry out.

 

[Brette]

how would i go about disinfecting the hospital tank so i can bring it back down to storage? any sug gestions???

You can use one part rubbing alcohol to ten parts water or like, me use white vinegar and water. Vinegar is acidic and tends to kill nasties but it's less harsh than bleach.

Columnaris is really awful, it works so fast that you hardly have time to react. I would have a bottle of antibacterial meds and also anti parasitic meds on hand at all times. I learned this the hard way. Sorry about your fish.