Columnaris treatment sharing.

[molliwopp]

I want to share a success that is now happening in my rusty cichlid species tank. With a strain of the disease columnaris.

I have been battling columnaris for a month and a secondary internal parasitical or bacterial infection which turned out to be easy to treat where the column could only be slowed. They came sick together possibly due to trainsportation or stressful arrival as they came through mail order.

I tried different medications that i had to import from you guys in the US. Seachem Metro twice in their food seemed to solve the internal. But for colum i used furan 2, extra salt, kanaplex that i had to import and then myxazin from the UK. Myxazin turned out to be more more pronounced at slowing down development. I was at the stage off depressing about all 10 of my new species tank dying off completely and whether i should euthanatize all 10 but they were still fighting, eating and staying active with the od sulk here and there hard i couldnt bring myself to give up.

Because myxazin slowed it most i thought of trying it again with a lower temperature with alittle extra salt and bingo its been three days now and their mouths are healing by the day.

Myxazin contents is: malachite green and acriflavine hydrochloride. It may have possibly saved my fish from death and Ill update once/if i can completely eliminate this disease. Mala green is nasty stuff and im not too happy with having to use it but if it saves their life after all this daily stressing over my new friends it will be worth it!

 

[Matt68005]

Malachite is for fungus not columnaris, if this worked, then your fish had true fungal infection....not columnaris.

 

[jlk]

I believe it's the combo of acriflavine, salt and low temps that are helping here. Acriflavine is an antiseptic that was commonly used for medical purposes to treat bacterial infections in humans before the discovery of antibiotics. Salt alone at high salinities (.3+%) can kill mild columnaris infections without the use of anything else as its strictly a fw bacteria and it can not survive high salinity levels. Your issue was definitely not fungal and I do not find MG effective for treating true fungus.

I think the issue with the kana/fura combo not being very effective may have been the result of under dosing- they really should be dosed daily for a minimum of 7-10 days and I believe the instructions only state dosing 2-3x over the course of multiple days.

Glad to hear that everyone is recovering!!!

 

[Delapool]

Could you post salt levels and temperature used that had success?

 

[molliwopp]

Youre probably right jlk, i followed the 4 day treatment. Dosing on Day 1 and 2 25% change and repeated while feeding kanaplex orally.

As a freshwater keeper, a salinity test isnt something i have to hand. Ive dosed salt to one tablespoon or 3 teaspoons per 5 gallons with my temp at 20ºc or 68ºf

Come and see the forum if youre at your computer. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/ you can even use your browser!

 

[threnjen]

I treated my main tank for 10 days as directed with TMP sulfa.
I found out at the end which specific fish brought in the illness, so I took them (dwarf cories) and my other cories (only other species that ever died) out to a quarantine tank.
All fish in my main display besides cories survived. They had only shown slight symptoms to begin with and their symptoms cleared with the TMP Sulfa.
Cores in quarantine continue to die, although it has been more than a week since treatment ended.

 

[Matt68005]

Sounds like a good plan.....Furan, kanaplex and salt is always a good plan to treat these type of bacterial Septima infections in fish.
Personally i use Methylene blue, Marine Salt, and Terramycin via feed. I have had alot of sucess with this treatment. Actually 100% success so far have not lost a fish in years using this method in a hospital tank.