I recently noticed a pale saddle-like coloration on my pair of clown plecos, and I am concerned it might be Columnaris. Both fish are behaving normally and eating well but this saddle like pattern appeared shortly after transfering them from a much smaller tank to the new, larger one. It does not seem to have progressed past the initial spread.
I began treating my tank with Melafix as soon as I noticed the pale patches, but there doesn't seem to have been much change for better or for worse.
One of the plecos and a black molly in the tank also have pale yellow coloration at the ends of their fins which look slightly worn away- another symptom of columnaris?
In total I have 13 colombian tetras, 6 black widow tetras, 5 mollies, 3 rosy barbs, a gourami, 2 plecos and 1 mystery snail all in a 66g tank. I'm using a 200 galon per hour powerhead with a wet/dry spraybar filter. I have 1 basket of ceramic biomax tubes and 2 compartments of bioballs in my filter chambers, as well as filter floss in all 4. One of them did house activated carbon which I removed when I started treating the fish.
So far I have lost two fish in my tank, a very small pleco and a black molly who both went from fine and healthy to dead and covered in a white film overnight. The remaining fish have not shown any signs of illness until now.
Did a water test just before posing this and the readings are as follows:
Nitrates: 10ppm, Nitrites: 0, Ammonia: 0, 8d GH, 3d KH, PH 6.8, Chlorine 0
I have been doing roughly 40% water changes each week, and vacuming the gravel in the process.
Does this sound like Columnaris? How can I treat the fish? I have heard of copper based compounds which would kill my snails, or using salt which would kill my plecos, so I am at a bit of a loss. I cannot currently afford a hospital tank for the treatment of the sick fish. I previously had a borrowed QT/Hospital tank but have recently returned it to the friend it was borrowed from.
I am in the UK so it is not easy for me to obtain Antibiotics as they are rarely sold over the counter here.
I began treating my tank with Melafix as soon as I noticed the pale patches, but there doesn't seem to have been much change for better or for worse.
One of the plecos and a black molly in the tank also have pale yellow coloration at the ends of their fins which look slightly worn away- another symptom of columnaris?
In total I have 13 colombian tetras, 6 black widow tetras, 5 mollies, 3 rosy barbs, a gourami, 2 plecos and 1 mystery snail all in a 66g tank. I'm using a 200 galon per hour powerhead with a wet/dry spraybar filter. I have 1 basket of ceramic biomax tubes and 2 compartments of bioballs in my filter chambers, as well as filter floss in all 4. One of them did house activated carbon which I removed when I started treating the fish.
So far I have lost two fish in my tank, a very small pleco and a black molly who both went from fine and healthy to dead and covered in a white film overnight. The remaining fish have not shown any signs of illness until now.
Did a water test just before posing this and the readings are as follows:
Nitrates: 10ppm, Nitrites: 0, Ammonia: 0, 8d GH, 3d KH, PH 6.8, Chlorine 0
I have been doing roughly 40% water changes each week, and vacuming the gravel in the process.
Does this sound like Columnaris? How can I treat the fish? I have heard of copper based compounds which would kill my snails, or using salt which would kill my plecos, so I am at a bit of a loss. I cannot currently afford a hospital tank for the treatment of the sick fish. I previously had a borrowed QT/Hospital tank but have recently returned it to the friend it was borrowed from.
I am in the UK so it is not easy for me to obtain Antibiotics as they are rarely sold over the counter here.
