Columnaris infected Female Guppy

[Spydon]

I have had two guppies in a breeding container with another female past few days and noticed they never seem to eat all their food, so I clean it out as often as every other day to limit stress. My first reaction is take out plants into separate tank and do a 40% wc & pull out the carbon filter and add salt fingers crossed this does the trick and prevents it from spreading to my community.

4ft Tank, Hang on filter, Amonia 0-25, Ph 6.4, Nitrate/Nitrite 0, GH is at 4 and so is KH,

3 Gouramies
6 Tiger Barbs
6 Neon Tetras
4 Red Fin Tetras
5 Black Neon Tetras
1 Bristlenose Catfish
1 Sucker Catfish
1 Catfish*

 

[Spydon]

I went out and bought some Pimafix and went by the instructions and dosed my tank with what it recommended (5ml per 40L = 20ish ml) so fingers crossed doing this for next 7 days my Guppy would recover and prevent any other fish from getting fin rot.

 

[Spydon]

Seems like I'm talking to myself here.....anywho day two of treatment and the fish in the picture has died :"( but on the god news my other female Guppy has so far given birth to 3 fry . Hoping the pimafix doesn't kill off any fish at the recommended dosage of 5ml to 40L as it has foamed up a little when I dose it in the main tank and the hospital tank too.

 

[Convict2161]

When I had columnaris I used Maracyn plus, lowered the heat and used salt. Took me about a month and 20+ fish later it was over.

Treatment got expensive. I also turned my lights off during treatment.

It's a nasty disease. Your not speaking to yourself btw... First time I saw this.

 

[Oohitsae]

With columnaris, you need to highly oxygenate your tank, turn the temp down to the lowest level all your fish can stand, and use epsom salt rather than AQ salt.

You will also want to treat with a broad spectrum medication that treats both gram negative and gram positive bacteria.
Kanaplex is the best (IMO) out there for this situation.
Furan-2 tends to do the best out of everything I've tried..
I've also tried Maracyn Plus, which was helpful in keeping other fish from getting effected, but not helpful in saving fish that had already shown signs of it.

You'll want to do 2-3 rounds. treat until you don't see any more signs of it, then 1 more round after that to make sure.

It's internal even though it shows up as external so you'll want to use epsoms in conjunction to meds, 1tsp/gallon worked well for me and I used it when treating with both the furan and maracyn plus

Columnaris likes warm, slowly moving water, with little oxygen, so whatever you can do to make it the opposite will help.

I've had this 4 times in my fishkeeping career, all within 3-4 months. It's rediculously hard to treat, I lost most of my show quality betta females and a few of my males from this, but you live and learn.

 

[Matt68005]

Yeah its nasty and resist meds. Some fish get it more than others. Inbreeding to make 'fancy' fish weaks their natural immunity to it. Their is no sure cure except maybe formayldhyde but ive not used that yet. Antibiotics can slow the disease so that the fishes immune system clears it. But it does not kill it. Oohitsae gave tge same advice i would give, but even then its like a 50/50 chance. Another thing i have found that works sometimes is food medicated with oxytetracycline. I have had the disease in my juvinele grow out tanks (guppies) and i know its frustrating and makes you want to give up fishkeeping. It seems i medicate with kanamycin and tgey get better but when i stop it comes back. It bites!