Fin rot or Flexibactor Columnaris: need help !!

[Power_of Zephyr]

Ok first I must explain the setup. Basically, I have 3 single species platy tanks that to my best guess have fin rot. All the tanks have been being treated with Mardel's/biospheres Antibacterial solution, which is basically an all around treatment for Dropsy, tail and fin rot and other bacterial anomalies.

Special Notes; All the Tank's are 25 gallons and connected to a large system sump that supports a total of 33 tanks. Whenever an aquarium is declared sick with something it's isolated by turning off a "flow" that sprays water into it. Basically shutting the flow off stops the water from rising to the outlet pipe where it flows back into the main sump. So while this does prevent the "sick" water from going back through the system and contaminating other tanks it also decreases aeration to that individual tank (sorry about all this technical mumbo jumbo, just trying to give you a complete background of the situation)

Of course I tested the tanks that had extreme deaths and they tested ok
Ammonia = 0ppm, Nitrite =0ppm, PH=7.4-7.6 .
Tank A Sunburst Platies, been treated with with Mardel the longest , many deaths the first few days (10+ a day) but deaths are slowing down now, no deaths or low deaths the past few days.
Tank B Red Crescent platies, have moderate case of fin rot, few deaths thus far but not much improvement either
Tank C Red Platies, For some reason these guys don't seem to have the fin rot as bad but they still keep dying. Just this morning I pulled about 13-15 dead out of the tank and a few hours later pulled about 4-5 more.


So here are my questions
1. How long should a good antibacterial medication take to clear all signs of the fin rot or at least make significant progress.
2. If this doesn't seem to be working fast enuogh, What bacterial remedy would you recommend
3. Should a simple case of fin rot be killing fish in such massive numbers of platies. Most of them die before their fins have just began to show sings of fin rot, some die before they even get fin rot.

I think it's fin rot, while it doesn't look that much like the examples in Pandora's guide to diseases, it does have small white clumps or dots on the fin edges and mouth. They're are also white transcluscent patches on the the edges and in the middle of the tail fins. At first I didn't think it was fin rot because I didn't see any fin decay. I looked up another possibility called Flexibactor. Recently however I have noticed fin decay so I'm guessing it's still a bacterial based fin rot or something that should be cured by Mardel's Bacterial Fin rot!


P.s All the tanks had about 30-40 platies in it from the beggining so although they are a bit overcrowded they are selling so hopefully overcrowding isn't an issue

 

[Angel Lady]

have you checked them for anything else other than the fin rot I had some that had velvet and didnt even know it until the pleco was eating and I noticed it on his belly I know those platys come in a lot of colors that you cant even tell they have it

 

[reg2k2]

It does sound like the descriptions of columnaris I've read.
Take a read and see what u think...

Columnaris

 

[Power_of Zephyr]

Yeah, that is a lot what is sounds like. So what should I do to cure this? I've heard there is 2 types of bacteria that infect fish;Gram negative and Gram Positive. Does anyone know if you need to treat them differently?
Even if you don't know what Brand names would u reccomend? OR just any good ingredients or home remedies that should work, including raising or lowering the temperature

 

[ostrow]

Zephyr given the setup you have my guess is you have more experience than I. However, I've been keeping for a couple years now. Currently experiencing my first case of flex/columnaris (seems to have many names).

Because it is hard to know for sure if it's bacteria or fungus, at least on my fish, I was advised to use Jungle Fungus Eliminator which combines antibiotic and antifungal aspects.

It is gentle -- I've lost no fish so far and the problem is clearing on teh affected fish (albeit slowly).

Others swear by the Maracyns in combination for this.

 

[reg2k2]

The article mentions something about temp.--if I read it right, higher temp increases speed of disease, but lower temp. won't stop it? (or won't slow it down?)..... . Also recommends some med's.

When I thought I was gonna be treating for this, I ended up deciding on oxytetracycline. It was mentioned on a couple of sites, tho not necessarily the most common recommendation. I think the reason I settled on it was I happened to have bought some in food form (but was later unsure of the exp. date, so didn't use).
Also, the pkg.--capsules--read that it was good for gram+, gram-, and columnaris. And supposed to be safe for tetras (my fish). My local vet (keep in mind has only seen the occasional koi) named a few, my mind only recognized the oxytet. and furan (also in the article). Since I haven't used these, obviously I can't vouch for the effectiveness, but thought I'd mention it. Just another option.

Please don't take offense ...are the tanks clean? Any excess waste? Only ask as I think that's what caused my prob.; the bacteria's supposed to thrive on it. But I imagine yours could prob. be due to shipping, etc...