Columnaris Diagnosis And Treatment Help! Infected Fish

[WILDER]

Minnows are cold water fish shouldn't really be kept with tropical fish.
Columnaris thrives in highter temp but with antibiotics you are meant to keep the temp high.
If you don't have excess to antibiotics I would lower the temp not raise it.
Columnaris lives in the tank water in the background its only when fish get stressed it starts to do the damage,.
Plenty of water changes to dilute the bacteria down in the tank.
Columnaris dosn't like salt either.
[URL="http/article.discusnews.com/cat-02/columnaries.shtml"]http/article.discusnews.com/cat-02/columnaries.shtml[/URL]

If she can't keep them at the proper temp I wouldn't advise getting anymore minnows.

 

[Colin_T]

I have kept white clouds outside all year round and they are fine in warm water. In fact they live quite happily all through summer here and their pond gets to 32C, sometimes more. As long as the oxygen levels are high and the water clean, they are fine in warm water.

 

[jollysue]

http/badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile46.html

 

[Colin_T]

that is an informative link but white clouds are bred in tropical Asia and they live happily up there at high temperatures.

 

[jollysue]

Perhaps you are correct, Colin T, but all Anecdotal Evidence aside, I am fine typing Mountain White Cloud Minnows as generally a cold water fish. They are a very forgiving fish generally I understand. Mine are wild caught so they are from the mountain streams and while they are doing well in the low 70's I intend to move them into a cold water tank to hopefully breed them. My fish keeping philosophy is aimed at meeting the fishes' preferences not my convenience when possible. My advice is generally aimed in that direction.

My aim is to find the fishes' preferences and try to work with that. I am far from meeting my goal, but, although I have fish that tolerate temperatures outside of their ranges, I make an effort to accomodate them. I think the fish will live longer, healthier lives. I also think I will be a more accomplished fish hobbyist.

 

[aquababy]

Hi everyone.

Thanks for all the prompt replies. I am extremely sorry I haven't logged on for a couple of days but I've been very busy. Iv'e read all your posts and I think everyone agrees that the problem is columnaris. I went to the LFS and told them my fish symptoms and that it might be columnaris. The manager and assistants had never heard of it and couldn't figure out what was wrong with my fish and what would be the correct treatment. I tried a different petshop and got the same response. I decided to try the aquatics specialists in Leeds. The assistant I spoke to checked my tank water sample and then suggested I do no more water changes for 10 days. He said I had ammonia and nitrite but that it wasn't very high. He gave me some Interpet Anti Internal Bacteria Treatment and said to use it 2 doses 4 days apart . He said if this didn't work then I should try the Interpet Anti Fungus and Finrot.
I have checked all the other fish today and noticed a white (bleached) patch just under his large top fin. His tail also seems to have a slit in it, about 1/4 of the way down. The large fin on the bronze corys back also looks a bit frayed at the edges (like its been bitten) but I have not seen any of the fish fin nip the bronze cory.
I hope everyone on here can agree on a treatment and water temperature and also if I need to do lots of small water changes or stick to one water change a week and wether I should use salt
I have read the leaflet that came with the Anti Internal Bacteria. It says it treats Aeromones hydrophila, Pseudomenas fluorescens and vibrio marinum. It says this treatment destroys the bacteria, and previously veterinary prescribed antibiotics were the only effective treatment.
I have read online about the Interpet Anti Fungus and Finrot treatment and it says it can be used to treat columnaris.

 

[WILDER]

Anti finrot and fungus med not that great on columnaris, done better getting the anti internal abacteria med, you can double dose in bad cases.
You can also use pimafix with the med,
Don't forget to increase aeration with the med.
When you preform water changes just add the correct amount of med back to the water removed,.
Good luck.

 

[aquababy]

I have a Elite filter that came with my brothers larger tank that I am using in my 27 litre tank ansd I also put in an air pump with air stone that was also for a larger tank. Will this be enough aeration or is there anything else I should be using? I have seen some oxygen tablets at the petshop.
Sorry I mixed up the fish on my last post. The fish that has the bleached patch and slit on the tail is the panda cory but he still looks ok and is eating ok and playing. He developed the patch after I turned the water temperature down and the same with the bronze cory.The guy at the petshop said most of my mixed fish symptoms were from stress. I was wondering wether the food could have something to do with it aswell. I feed the corys algae pellets everyday or algae wafers and I only feed them once a day now. For the rest of them I have tropical fish flakes which contain 25% Protein, 3.4% Oil, 0.41% Fibre and 3.1% Ash.

 

[WILDER]

I doubt its the food if its not out of date.
Fish need a varied diet of frozen food and veg in there diet, to many dried foods can lead to constipation.
As long as the filters ripping the water surface well the fish should be fine.

 

[jollysue]

Corys are omnivores. The algae tab can be a suppliment, but a sinking omnivore disc such as Hikari Sinking Wafers or Tetra Tabs both for bottom feeders are better staple choices for Corys. This though is unlikely to have made them sick as they are most likely getting their staple from the flakes that fall to the bottom.

 

[aquababy]

For me its another fabulous day. All my fish babies are still here and they all seem to be doing ok. My bronze cory seems to be healing and his colour looks a lot lighter than a couple of months ago, Panda is still his normal busy self. The patch on his back doesn't seem to have changed and the slit in his tail has disappeared but otherwise he looks ok and is eating and playing and not showing any signs of being ill.
I wish there was more I could do to help my babies get better quicker.
I'll keep a watch on them and keep updating on their progress everyday.

 

[Brette]

For me its another fabulous day. All my fish babies are still here and they all seem to be doing ok. My bronze cory seems to be healing and his colour looks a lot lighter than a couple of months ago, Panda is still his normal busy self. The patch on his back doesn't seem to have changed and the slit in his tail has disappeared but otherwise he looks ok and is eating and playing and not showing any signs of being ill.
I wish there was more I could do to help my babies get better quicker.
I'll keep a watch on them and keep updating on their progress everyday.

Good luck with this. Columnaris has ruined my tank. i had half my fish die overnight. I'm treated with an antibiotic and transfering them to a new tank as the water from the original one is contaminated with dead fish. What an awful disease this is.

 

[aquababy]

Hi Brette

I am so sorry to hear about your fish. I can understand how you must have felt. Theres nothing worse than waking up each morning and scooping out another dead fish or two, especially when you count the live ones and realise theres one missing, then you have to search the whole tank to find the missing one only to find it dead. It broke my heart to see them like that and to imagine what suffering they must have gone through.
When did you have the outbreak in your tank?
It would be interesting to know from everyone who has had Columnaris in their tanks when they had it. Maybe its one of those viruses that comes around every year at a particular season or month. I know my cats get huge flea infestations in spring and I have to treat them for it but the rest of the year isn't too bad. Also they tend to get a flu season and sore throats if left untreated could kill them. Kittens are more likely to die as they are young and haven't built up an immune system. My cats even suffered mouth ulcers(which were a virus)about 3 yeas ago and they all got it, all 6 of them.
If this is the case and these bacterias spread at certain times in the water then we should not buy fish at that time of year when there is a possible outbreak.

 

[Brette]

I've had the tank for 2 months, I've been adding them since August slowly. Maybe summer isn't an ideal time to buy fish since apparently columnaris likes high temps. They could develop it during transporation in trucks etc?

 

[aquababy]

Its like you have read my mind Brette. This is the kind of thing I was talking about in my last post. There has got to be a reason why these fish are becoming sick and it can't be because of our tanks. May be this problem exsists in the water our fish came from or maybe it has something to do with the transportation process as you have mentioned. These fish get taken from their own waters and bagged up in water we know nothing about. They then have to go into the lfs aquariums so already these fish have had to deal with three seperate types of water and water temperature.
This is why I wanted to know when these outbreaks are happening .
And heres the weird part. like you I set up my aquarium also about 2 months ago and I started adding my fish in August. A coincidence?