Sick fish

[RNbowmom]

I need yalls advice my fish look sick. I started noticing darker gray coloring on the top of their heads but wasn't sure. They seemed fine until i got plants. The plants kept rotting and I was trimming and vacuuming every other day. I started noticing fuzz on my decorations I immediately removed and cleaned it with force of nature for 5-10 minutes then dechlorinated it and placed it back in the tank. I noticed their gills were looking almost bloody. This leads my to believe it is not an anaerobic bacteria or a fungus but an aerobic bacteria like columnaris. I still wasn't sure until yesterday evening I noticed a cottony mouth on my male rainbow. I did research decided it might be columnaris and began reducing the temp in my tank. Im at 76 right now another couple hours ill reduce to 75 then 74. They are both still eating well and the boy is still trying to chase the girl or showing off. I hope i have time and my efforts pay off. My lfs do not have meds! I have cupramine on hand and I ordered furan2 and kanaplex. I removed plants vacuumed again and then removed all decorations and reduced my water level to 10 gallons for medication purpose. Im getting ready to add salt as well. I wish i had formalin but I do not.

Anyway do you guys think it is columnaris? My plants may have come infected. They also came with snails i treated with prazipro. The furan comes tomorrow the kanaplex comes Tuesday. Right now all I have that can help with columnaris is the cupramine. Should I do a full treatment of the cupramine then switch to the other two or should I filter out the cupramine and use the other one as soon as i get it bc i cant use them together and im not sure which is most effective to save my fish? I've been working tirelessly in this tank since I got those darn plants online. Its a nightmare

 

[gilpi]

Oh man, too much going on in that tank. “Fish were fine till you got the plants” answers your problems, maybe? Plants rotting and on top of that adding meds, I see it as a disaster waiting to happen. I don’t know how much you have invested in your plants, substrate nor the tank condition, cycled or not, tank size, amount of fish etc. IMO most meds are a waste of money and a vicious cycle. I would remove the plants (since they seem to be the culprit according to your information) and keep doing frequent water changes and see how your fish recover at this point.

 

[RNbowmom]

As of that post I had already removed the plants and placed them in a cycled quarantine tank. I thought about throwing out the val bc its the only one that didn't adjust. The others were fine. I have invested several months in this tank. It is fully cycled with good substrate (co2)and lighting and co2. All the other plants did very well i have a few sprites, cuttings of talenthera rosefolia, hornwort and Val. The first couple days I had a lot of shedding from all plants. I just trimmed everyday netted and cleaned my filter intake daily. I vacuumed every other day. The val didn't adjust (it already looked crummy when I got it) but all the others were doing well no shedding and were growing very well).

I removed the plants and placed them in quarantine. Removed all decorations disinfected them vacuum extremely thoroughly and reduced the tank volume to 10. My filter still pumping. I have floss in the filter box and have them on cupramine, and furan2. Still vacuuming daily. Disinfecting equipment. My liytle girl looks like she is feeling a bit better so fingers crossed. I will add the plants back later but may just throw out the val for failure to thrive. It may have been the source. My shipment was delayed so they came late. All the others I can use the meds I have with plants in the tank. Im going to switch out the cupramine today and change just about all the water with aged water today and begin furan2 with kanaplex bc ive read it is more effective. I will either through out the val or trim it to nothing and leave it in quarantine until it shapes up