Columnaris Help Please

[Xaerie]

I didn’t listen to my gut and didn’t quarantine my new cardinal tetras before adding to my main tank. Feeling nervous and regretting my decision, I immediately pulled them out and quarantined them when I noticed two were isolating themselves after being in the main tank for 3 hours.

No shops or stores had medicine and amazon could only get here as early as today (this all happened Monday.) The only thing I could do was put in aquarium salt. It’s Wednesday now and I’m down to 4 out of 7 cardinal tetras.

I also dosed my main tank with the aquarium salt. Although my fish in there are acting fine and eating as normal I don’t want to wake up to any dead fish.

The MethyleneBlue arrived this morning so my cardinal tetras are currently bathing in a double dose of that for 30min. With no meds in stock I’m still waiting for my package of API-Furan 2, and SeaChem KanaPlex to arrive. My main concern is what to do with my main tank. I don’t know if the new fish brought in the Columnaris or if it was already in my main tank even though all of my fish seem fine.

I simply don’t know what to do.
I also don’t know what to do with my plants in the main tank if I end up dosing with API-Furan 2 and SeaChem.
Should I also be giving my main fish a MethyBlue bath?

 

[coriesinhawaii]

I agree with a 2-drug regimen of the Furan 2 and Kanaplex once it arrives for the affected fish. Hard to say whether the Columnaris being in your main tank will be a problem or not because some people say it is present in most aquariums while others say it will always cause disease when introduced to an aquarium. If you do treat your main tank it could possibly harm your biological filter so it might cause a mini cycle. (Though both products claim to have no effect on the biofilter I have used treatments before that made such claims and ended up with a mini cycle that killed some of my cories anyway.)

Tough decision. I could see going either way. You could keep a close eye on the main tank and be ready to treat if any more fish show symptoms. If you do end up treating the main tank, I would definitely test for ammonia and nitrites frequently within a day or two of beginning treatment and have some Prime or other ammonia detoxifier on hand in case your filter is affected.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Tough decisions!
I'm sorry you're going through this. A lot of us learned the hard way about quarantining new stock, so you're not alone in taking the risk even knowing better, you were unlucky that this time the risk didn't pay off. Chances are that the new fish bought in the disease. They get exposed to all sorts of things on the farms they're raised on, and in stores.

Personally I'd treat the whole main tank as well, but as @coriesinhawaii says, keep a close eye on water parameters in case of a mini cycle. I've had an antibiotic type med cause a mini cycle too. Luckily mine only lasted about four days before the tank bacteria population grew back again enough to handle the tanks bioload, but that may vary depending on the med used, stocking, plant load etc. So being alert for it, testing often, doing water changes (and re-dosing meds for the amount of water you removed if you need to water change during treatment) should help you spot and stay on top of any mini-cycles.

Just noticed this post is from a few days ago, how are the fish doing now?