Crazy Die-Off

[Luananeko]

I'd second the idea of doing both at once... When I was treating my columnaris infection I didn't see a huge difference when using just the regular Maracyn, it was only after I used the Maracyn 2 as well that I saw the tufts disappear from my tetras. I didn't lose any more while using Maracyn, and they claim their Maracyn formula is better for columnaris (you'd think they'd know their own product lines), but I really feel the Maracyn 2 worked best of the two. Better safe than sorry and use both to cover all the options imho.

 

[jlk]

If you havent done one yet, I would do a decent wc before starting treatment. Just keep daily tabs on your parameters. Your good bacteria will likely take a hit. Use Prime as needed. If you need to do water changes, try to do them @ the same time every day before redosing so the meds are in the tank for a full 24hrs. Also skip the ferts until your done with treatment because they may have effect on how the antibiotics work. Good luck!

 

[Super_Blueberry]

Would you also recommend skipping the co2 until later?

 

[jlk]

Would you also recommend skipping the co2 until later?

You know what, thats a good question. I honestly dont know the correct answer because I dont run co2 in my tanks and have only ever treated fish in qt (though theres plants in it). Until someone with a better idea has an answer, I would say skip it for now. I am pretty sure your plants will survive just fine without co2 for a week or two.

 

[Luananeko]

I don't inject CO2, but I didn't stop fertilizers and Excel dosing while I was treating my tank. It didn't seem to affect the medication's effectiveness at all. You can hold off just in case, but from my brief experience I don't believe it hurts anything by continuing the dosage that the plants and fish are already used to. It may be different with CO2 injection though, as I know that tends to make the pH fluctuate much more drastically than you'd see in a low-tech tank like mine.

 

[Super_Blueberry]

Well I went to the only store in the area that has maracyn, and they had the bottle of "1", but were sold out of two, so I had to order that online. Started dosing the maracyn yesterday and keeping my fingers crossed since I still don't really know what it is I'm battling. Once the two gets here I'll be dosing that as well.

On the plus side, I didn't wake up to any more deceased fish, but I'm not saying its solved it by any means because of only one good day.

 

[Super_Blueberry]

Well it's been three days w/o any losses, so I'm beginning to hope I've finally gotten past this disaster. Still just dosing maracyn, expecting the maracyn 2 to show up today or tomorrow, but now I'm starting to wonder if I should bother if the regular maracyn seems to be working and continues to do so. part of me says no, my fish have been through enough. Then part of me says yes, let's nuke the hell out of whatever it is to be sure it's eradicated.

 

[Luananeko]

Columnaris is insidious enough I'd use the Maracyn 2 just to be safe... But since you're not 100% sure that it was columnaris it may be that the Maracyn is already covering whatever the bug was.

 

[Super_Blueberry]

Well its been a week since my last loss. I finished dosing Maracyn and just did a 60% pwc and things are looking better....FINALLY. I started dosing my normal co2 last Friday, and will start my PPS dosing tomorrow. I still don't know exactly what it was I had in my tank, but I have a bottle and a half of Maracyn and 48 packets of 2 standing by if this bastard resurfaces. Now I just need some patience. I lost about half my guys to this bug, and I'm wanting to restock, but I need to make myself wait until one of my 10g's is available and force myself to start qt'ing all my new arrivals. On top of the losses, medicating a 55g gets pretty darn expensive. Plus, it will be a great habit to have when I finally get my 100g up and running.

Thank you all for the advice and suggestions you made! Its greatly appreciated!

 

[Luananeko]

It's so frustrating and helpless feeling to watch half your stock die so quickly without knowing why... And as someone who just had to dose a 75 gallon tank for both Maracyn and Maracyn 2, I hear you on the expensive bit! Glad to hear you finally got things under control!