I don't know what else to do

[Rin4Christ]

I have a betta with an infection that I think is columnaris. Actually, 2 had it, one died. I started both of them on JFE for 6 days. 100% water change every day and redosing the medication. the infection didn't look worse, but it didn't go away, one died, and the other looked very bad.

So i changed the water and gave poppy (the remaining one) fresh water i thik with aquarium salt. He stayed in fresh water for about 48 hours (100% water change again at 24)

After this I started a round of combined Maracyn and maracyn II. I have been adding medication every day for 5 days now. I have not changed the water because the package said that maracyn II builds up over time. Now 5 days later, fish is still alive but the infection has spread from being just on his fins to on his body (a few strings hanging off his back.

I don't know what else to do..... I have tried 3 medications and he is still not better. He is still eating, but spends most of his time on the bottom. He struggles up to the top of the bowl when i walk by, probobly in hope of food.

Suggestions??? I have run out of ideas....... thanks!

 

[3fsh]

If it is columnaris, you need to use tetracycline or he probably won't make it. What size tank is he in? Make sure that you are dosing medication correctly, or you can hurt him.

*Edited because I forgot that you could use Maracyn and Maracyn II at the same time. *

 

[Styx]

My sister's female has that, been treating with Tetracycline and having no luck. I read medicated food is the best for treating it, so maybe if you can find some?

 

[Tolak]

Maracyn & MaracynII can be used together without any problem. If it is columnaris, you need a sulfa based drug. Check out http/www.fishyfarmacy.com/products2.html
scroll down to sulfa 4 tmp. Try that or paranox.

Tolak

 

[cation]

I'm curious, what makes you think it's columnaris? It sounds like it started on the fins, then moved towards the body. Columnaris typically starts on small areas of the body, at least from what I've seen.

 

[BettaMomma]

Yeah, I'd have to agree.
I just had 3 girls that had it, luckily I caught it in time and they all recovered.
It looked like grey patches that started on their foreheads - then spread across above their eyes and back to the gills. It almost looks like grey mold outlined in black... sort of.

Do you see white stringy stuff? or what kind of stringy stuff are you seeing?

 

[Rin4Christ]

It started as a white sting on his tail. I later saw white strings on the bottom fin or the long fins in the front. Sometimes it forms a string, sometimes it was more like a white puff. now I see a white string on his back. I thought it was columnaris because i described it on another board and thats whay they identified it as. JFE should have killed either fungus or columnaris, and maracyn and marcyn II should together kill both gram pos and gram neg

 

[Rin4Christ]

I did a 100% water change and put salt in his water, and he is swimming slightly better (the water was prety gross after 5 days) but still hanging out at the bottom of the tank.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

How big is his tank?

 

[Rin4Christ]

Right now he is in a 1 gal bowl. before i brough him to my apartment he was in one section of a divided 20 gal (5 sections total). I may move him to a 1.5 gal in a few days (have to disinfect it).

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hm, it may just be due to your betta having a bad imune system, if salt though is helping improve his condition it is most likely he has fungus of some sort- i would just continue with the salt treatment alone and stop using the other meds and see if his condition improves

 

[Rin4Christ]

He actually is swimming better this morning than he has in a week. I'll keep using salt and see what happens.

 

[BettaMomma]

Actually, one of my girls had white strings hanging off her fins during columnaris, too... but that was only for one day, and as soon as I started the second 5-day treatment of maracyn for her, they went away overnight.

Do you see any grey patches on face, body, anything?

 

[Rin4Christ]

there are gray patches on his face and gills, but i wasn't sure if this was growth of a fungus or just color loss from being sick. They didn't show up untill 4 or 5 days ago....