Butterfly pleco needs desperate help

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I been researching a lot of stuff and triple sulfa is proven to work on columnaris, but 1 article was saying that it won't work on severe cases. I've also learned the hard way that not everything is correct on these random sites either. I rather take the advice you give me from the updated pics. Also thanks a lot for your patience and dedication
 
If treat ASAP.. Looks very bad, and very progressive.. Hate to say but sometimes ASAP is too late with this stuff.. Feel bad man.. Tough business.. I've been losing fish in my 20 one after the other, something different every time.. I'm calling it bad stock but it still sucks..
 
I know really really sucks.My bristle nose was my favorite, took me awhile to find him..I am taking off tomorrow and going to get medicine, hey it's a sick day!! The barb with the saddleback was stuck to filter no movement I added some salt and with in 30mins she was back to swimming. Still don't have to much hope for her though.. Guess it's back to the medicating and waiting game.. Thanks a lot dude
 
Can you lower the temp down? Anything lower will slow down a bacterial infection. What's it at now?

Salt will also help for sure.
 
Can you go 74f? You want it under 25c or 77f.

It's the same idea as a disease will race through in the tropics but lower impact in a temperate climate.

Was there any change in the tank that could of set it off at that time?
 
Also this is from Anibis (hope I got that right) on a discussion we were having about it and the trouble I was having sourcing meds. Tetracycline is all I can source here at a lfs, last time I didn't bother using it and tried triple sulpha.

"Tetracycline is most effective for gram positive bacteria, columnaris is gram negative. Nitrofurazone (Furan-2), Kanamycin (Kanaplex), or Minocycline (Maracyn-2) are better options. Triple sulfa can be hit or miss, works best if used early on.



Another note, gram positive antibiotics (like Tetracycline) are more likely to upset your beneficial bacteria than gram negative.



If tetracycline is all you can find then try it, if the fish don't show any sign of improvement after a few days then discontinue use. It is MOST effective against gram positive, but it may have an effect on gram negative.



I'd test your water daily while dosing any antibiotic just to be sure."
 
Very we'll I lowered it to 74.. I believe it was my busy nose. I bought it had it in qt tank for 9 days and then my butterfly pleco developed the growth on his mouth.I didn't have another tank for butterfly therefor put bushy nose in main tank shy of the 2 week qt period for new fish..My bushy nose died about a month later and lost 2 cory cats a few days after that.about a week after he died the grayish white patches been popping up, all my fish are flashing acouple lethargic.The one with saddleback just died,and I removed her and inspected her.i noticed she also had cotton like stuff on her mouth.. My first fish : ( real bummer when you try so hard.other then that early arrival to main tank only other changes would be acouple of micro swords I planted.also I feed them frozen blood worms and all that kinda stuff. Never the live cause I read that they can carry stuff but also now iam unsure if frozen foods can still carry something... So so much to know in this hobby but I refuse to give up.
 
That is sad news. I've got a link on it - will see if I can post when on the desktop.

I reckon cotton mouth started in mine last spring when the weather warmed suddenly and the tank gained a few degrees C over night. After that all my neons are gone, had ich (no worries) then last all rasbora's eventually to it. Now got one odd looking cardinal tetra that I've decided is perfect to keep the QT ticking over just in case.
 
Thanks for all this info you guys and gals supplied me. Now I have one more question.Ok so I just did my wc..Completing the triple sulfa treatments.. Haven't lost any more fish since the cory cats.. Woohoo thank god. Tell You the truth I was ready to hang my hat up if they all died..so now I been doing some research and stumbled upon uv sterilizers.Is This something I should invest in? Being that this happened,summer is around the corner heating up tank , and have a little algae problem now and again.
 
bRoOKlyNFiSHGuY said:
Thanks for all this info you guys and gals supplied me. Now I have one more question.Ok so I just did my wc..Completing the triple sulfa treatments.. Haven't lost any more fish since the cory cats.. Woohoo thank god. Tell You the truth I was ready to hang my hat up if they all died..so now I been doing some research and stumbled upon uv sterilizers.Is This something I should invest in? Being that this happened,summer is around the corner heating up tank , and have a little algae problem now and again.
Click to expand...


Sorry, forgot the link. Good news on the tank :)

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Columnaris.html

I've got a UV unit internal and favour getting them as separate units where you can control the water flow rate along the bulb (not convinced they do much inside canister filters with high flow rates). Run it for 8 hours a day to save bulb life.

Wouldn't throw it away but still had infections / ich with it going. It has made the water a little clearer but yours sounds similar to mine with only a little algae present. So I tend to regard them as a 'nice to have'. If you have room why not, but not a cure all unfortunately.

Off into the deep end and they are also meant to improve redox. Which does seem the case but I've never figured out what that all means. Got another link somewhere on this as I keep hoping someone can explain it to me (tied string to finger to remember to post :) ).
 
Very interesting read.. I am pretty sure columnaris was the culprit,way to many of the symptoms.No more flashing erratic swimming.All seems well. You deff saved my tank I would of never tried that medicine. If I ever seen you I would give you the only hug..(not in a funny way) but just so relieved.I stayed home from work the first 3 days to make sure I didn't have to do a emergency wc. I didn't play games this time lol. Yea I was checking the sterilizers out. Hey for 40 bucks I can get one with a power head, not that I really need it as I have no dead spots but if it helps why not.. Thanks a lot buddy
 
And thanks again lol you just saved me 40+ dollars.. Figure you get what you pay for..I'll just stay on my regular maintaining of my tanks they have been fine for years.. Only had problems once I took bad advice and didn't vacuum the gravel for the plants.. Never again
 
:) I think so with UV units. Strange really as they don't seem that complicated. I bought mine at the store almost as an impulse and it was pretty expensive. I keep meaning to check out online (never used to trust buying stuff online but now packages regularly turn up :) ).
 
I would like to update just incase someone with my problems stumbles upon what my pleco has been threw. The majority of the growth fell off and the remainder is slowy getting smaller. Still have no idea what it was I don't believe it was contagious,but I noticed that it started as white then turned yellow for a long long time then slowly turned brown..the past week it was extremely dark brown almost black and it fell off.. So it just goes to show you don't ever give up on a sick fish. I wasted over a 100$ on meds lots of researching lots of water changes for months and just like that he's 100%. I got my main man back and couldn't be more happy and motivated to do my best in fish keeping. It's not just a hobby it should be your life if you aren't dedicated stick to a hamster. Thanks to everyone that shared there input. My first experience on this site was a success
 
I would like to update just incase someone with my problems stumbles upon what my pleco has been threw. The majority of the growth fell off and the remainder is slowy getting smaller. Still have no idea what it was I don't believe it was contagious,but I noticed that it started as white then turned yellow for a long long time then slowly turned brown..the past week it was extremely dark brown almost black and it fell off.. So it just goes to show you don't ever give up on a sick fish. I wasted over a 100$ on meds lots of researching lots of water changes for months and just like that he's 100%. I got my main man back and couldn't be more happy and motivated to do my best in fish keeping. It's not just a hobby it should be your life if you aren't dedicated stick to a hamster. Thanks to everyone that shared there input. My first experience on this site was a success
 
Yippie!!! It's like algae in plants!! Cones on mean.. After a little excel it dies and falls off.. Who really knows? Maybe the Meds helped??
 
Yep happy healthy fish and I learned a lot from this experience. Waiting anxiously to get him back into the main tank. Hate seeing him for almost 3 months in a tank by himself. Although iam not to sure he might like it.. He got a little chubs pretty soon it's back to scavenging
 
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