I really cant catch a break. Is this columnaris?!

[Abbitha]

Ok I've been really battling my tank for awhile. I think the stress the fish have gone through over the past couple months are taking its toll my tank crashed after being up for a few years and I had to restart the tank and do a fish in cycle. (Terrible, I know) then my heat quit working and the heater in the aquarium couldn't keep up with the tank and it dropped from 78 to 68 quite quickly. With it getting to below zero over night I ran to the store and threw in another heater to help out and the temp went back to 78. So lots of temp fluctuations.

NOW I'm noticing one of my neons has cotton mouth. Which is columnaris. Not only that but my angel fish developed a white bubble where his dorsal fin begins. The bubble I guess ruptured? And in the sore a few more white bubbles were growing in his sore. What do I do?! The water parameters are perfect. 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 20 nitrate.

I've heard maracyn 2 treats this but it will completely destroy the nitrogen cycle and I'd have to start all over AGAIN and I feel like the stress of cycling with my fish is what started this in the first place. Can I just out the infected fish in a separate tank and treat them there?

 

[Abbitha]

You can see the white dots growing in his sore from when the cyst thing ruptured in front of his dorsal fin. Also, look at his face! He didn't used to have that colored face split.

 

[Abbitha]

Bump please what can I do

 

[Delapool]

Yes, I'd QT - especially the neon.

Edit - I'm sorry, I don't know on the angel fish.

 

[Abbitha]

Do you think just the neon I should QT. he's had that cottonmouth for a couple weeks now. None if the other fish have it. Just the angelfish and the neon have something weird going on. So should I put both the neon and angelfish in QT and treat only them? Then out them back after treatment?

 

[Delapool]

Yes, I'd QT the neon - I had cottonmouth slowly sweep through the rest. Also this would help as treatment I'd look at temperature below 25c, salt and medicine which will muck around the main tank.

Edit also QT the angel fish - if you can separate.

 

[Abbitha]

Ok thank you. I'll place them in a 5 gallon ( it's all I have) and treat with some medicine. Since the other fish don't seem to have anything do you advice I give them a round of natural medicine with like pimafix and melafix. I have plants and such and I know it's safe for plants. But treat the main tank with those as a precautionary. I have salt sensitive fish and snails and plants so don't feel comfortable adding salt to the main tank.

To treat the neon and angelfish how much salt do you advise I put in the 5 gallon? Do I treat with salt in addition to meds? What meds do you advise I use? Ones that are easily obtainable at pet store preferably. Thanks in advance!

 

[Delapool]

Hi, I'll dig up a link on meds. I started with 1 teaspoon of salt per 5 gall, went to a tablespoon per 5 gal (and eventually to 2 tablespoons when nothing was working). No problems with fish distress but 1 tablespoon max salt I would try first.

Temperature aim to keep below 25c (77f) as this will slow down the disease. I think this is hugely important.

Meds I used were tri-sulfa and tetracycline but options are pretty limited over here. Need to watch for high ph with tetracycline if you use it. Will check.

Use salt, low temp and meds all in combination. It's tricky because you hope to kill off a the disease without stressing the fish too much so I played it by seeing how fish did. My neons were about a year old so fairly well settled and a decent size.

Melafix and pimafix I did try with no luck. I don't think these are powerful enough although melafix seems hit and miss as well in that sometimes it works when not expected. A light dose shouldn't do any harm and may help and is cheap for a large tank.

 

[Delapool]

Also if you do a search for columnaris and started by 'molliwopp' you will see some threads on this.

 

[Delapool]

This was the article - it is limited to stuff I could find over here (which isn't much)

Aquarium Medications, Treatments, and How They Work (AQUARIUM CARE ARTICLES)

 

[Abbitha]

The pet store doesn't that

 

[Delapool]

Does it have anything to treat bacterial infections?

 

[Abbitha]

They had EM AKA erythromycin. I went ahead and grabbed that but honestly. They don't have Jack crap. It's always highly frustrating going in there when I need a particular medicine. Ugh.

 

[Abbitha]

Also can an angelfish tolerate salt? Anytime I google it and someone asks that the topics get out if hand and never answer the actual question. Soooo can I still add salt for my angelfish and neons? I went ahead and got them a 10 gallon QT tank and they are in there getting treated with the erythromycin. (Which is basically just maracyn 1 but half the cost) petsmart had maracyn 1 but don't carry maracyn 2 or any other bacteria meds that kill "gram negative bacteria" which is really frustrating :/

 

[Abbitha]

Went ahead and purchased maracyn 2 on amazon. I'll have it by Wednesday. But until then they'll get treated with this and see how it does

 

[Delapool]

They had EM AKA erythromycin. I went ahead and grabbed that but honestly. They don't have Jack crap. It's always highly frustrating going in there when I need a particular medicine. Ugh.

Yes I know what you mean. Utterly hopeless and usually only one of something. I've started ordering some stuff online when I get filter pads, etc.

 

[Delapool]

Also can an angelfish tolerate salt? Anytime I google it and someone asks that the topics get out if hand and never answer the actual question. Soooo can I still add salt for my angelfish and neons? I went ahead and got them a 10 gallon QT tank and they are in there getting treated with the erythromycin. (Which is basically just maracyn 1 but half the cost) petsmart had maracyn 1 but don't carry maracyn 2 or any other bacteria meds that kill "gram negative bacteria" which is really frustrating :/

All you can do I think is try. IMO the neon could be a lost cause but hopefully not. I've used salt with catfish and neons and they were fine in combination with other meds. So angelfish should also be ok. I found the first day of treatment that they may 'pant' and breathe fast but none looked in too much distress. If you use salt and they can't swim properly or roll over or in distress then water change.

Also I found pwc can help a lot just in general.

 

[HeatherW]

i had this in my 90 gallon - no fun! treated with mayacyn two and lower temps and salt. it finally cleared everything out.

good luck. sounds like you are on the right track. just watch your other fish.

sorry I don't know about your angel fish

 

[Delapool]

i had this in my 90 gallon - no fun! treated with mayacyn two and lower temps and salt. it finally cleared everything out.



good luck. sounds like you are on the right track. just watch your other fish.



sorry I don't know about your angel fish

Did you try anything else apart from mayacyn 2 or know of anything else? Meds over here are in the dark ages so just curious.

 

[HeatherW]

I was getting help from here and was told something about gram negative and needed gram negative to treat. maracyn one is gram positive and won't work need a gram negative drug to treat. pretty sure that is what I was told. I think I also took the infected guys out, swabbed them with a q-tip with hydrogen peroxide really quick. it was a real mess! I wonder if you can go to my old thread. let me check on that.

I think I also might have treated with kanamycin sulfate powder. had to order that online - i went to FISH DISEASE DIAGNOSIS & FISH DISEASE TREATMENTS but I don't think you need to do that yet - maracyn 2 should work and it is cheaper. the kanamycin is stronger.

I think I lost some of my data somewhere along the way but I will look on here and see if there is a history of my story