When treating columnaris

[Andie]

Got home last night and I wanted to scream- Galinda had three faint, fuzzy ropes dangling from her mouth/pectoral fins. I did some quick shuffling - moved Fiyero to the spawning tank and cleaned out his 2.5g - then popped her in Fiyero's tank with a piece of a Maracyn tablet.

She'll be due for her next dose tonight, and it's been so long since I last had to deal with this that I forget; do I just put in in there with her, or should I empty the tank to get rid of the old medication first before adding it in? I think with Ariel and Fysh I just kept adding it, but I was pretty new to bettas at the time so I'm not sure I was doing everything right at the time

 

[sandig]

I believe the old meds become inactive or lose their strength. I would change the water daily or every 2 days to keep the water super clean for him.

Columnaris is awful..good luck.
Sandi

 

[RandomWiktor]

The water change is not supposed to occur until after the 5th day of treatment when using Maracyn. I believe this is because the medicine is supposed to concentrate in the water, and changing it more often would alter its effectiveness.

I have a thread somewhere on treating columnaris - I just did, sucessfully, with one of my males. It would help for you to salt the water, lower the temp to about 75, and add aeration/current. Columnaris likes stangant, poorly aerated, saltless, warm water, so a good way to help fight it along with antibiotics is to make its habitat unfavorable. It is also immensely helpful to feed the fish an antibacterial food during treatment.

 

[Andie]

Thank you so much for the help; stores are closed now, but I have a shopping trip planned for tomorrow, so I'll buy a new airstone straight away. As to salt, I looked for some tonight but I was thinking in terms of constipation, which requires magnesium sulfate, not sodium chloride, so of course I didn't get aquarium salt and now I'm kicking myself for it! I'll pick some up tomorrow as well.

On the bright side, the visible signs of the disease are gone already; the fuzz has disappeared from her chin/pecs/ventrals, so I'm hoping I caught it early enough. I'll keep treating aggressively, and hopefully by Saturday she'll be recovered. She's always been a little tubby, and I suspect her current attack of constipation may have weakened her a bit, since she's having to struggle twice as hard to get around.

Unfortunately no stores around here sell medicated food, but since she's on a fast right now to shrink that massive tummy a bit, maybe that's just as well