Please help

[Anna94]

I’ve been treating columnaris this:

Day 1 - dose Furan (3packets), dose kanaplex (6scoop)
Day 2 - dose Furan (3packets)
Day 3 - water change (25%) and then dose Furan (3packets), dose kanaplex (6scoop)
Day 4 - water change (25%)
Day 5 - dose kanaplex (6scoop)
Day 7 - water change (25-50%) and then put back Purigen and carbon.

Someone is trying to tell me I need to a whole other treatment of furan. Is this true? I’m starting to freak out here and get frustrated because I’m getting mixed answers.

 

[BBradbury]

Hello Anna...

Putting chemicals in the tank water is very risky. You don't know how your fish will react. There's a fairly simple means of dealing with a bacterial infection. Clean up the tank water by removing and replacing most of it every few days and do a good job of vacuuming the bottom material to remove waste material. Lower the temperature in the tank to no more than 70 to 72 degrees and add a couple of teaspoons of standard aquarium salt to every 5 gallons of water change water. Bacterial infections don't do well in cooler water and pure water with a trace of salt in it. Keep this up until you see improvement. I would add some organic minced garlic to a little bit of fish food and feed it every couple of days. Garlic has some healthy nutrients and the salt will help with the stress and help in healing.

B

 

[Fresh2o]

Hoping not to add to the confusion with the use of meds, but the link below points to an article that supports the points raised in the previous post. It also mention the use of Melafix which contains oils from the Australian Tea Tree. Worth reading.
https://cflas.org/2014/03/27/treating-columnaris-or-body-fungus-not-a-true-fungus/2686/

 

[Delapool]

Well, I’m going to assume that was me and have reproduced my answer below however. And I see nothing posted on the condition of the fish that would change my answer.

People have had wins against this with all sorts of meds. And a win is a win. However, having tried the majority of those, I will stand by my answer that antibiotics (of which furan 2 + kanaplax is the better chance of success) & in serious cases a second treatment course will be needed.

A serious case is where it is spreading through a school of fish and treatment is aimed at saving the tank. A few cases of fin rot isn’t in the same ball park as columnaris as an example of how much of a problem it is. Slower cases of columnaris where it spreads over weeks are still difficult not to have fatalities.

In eastern Australia, one guy was reporting ‘some’ success however this was using salt dips at sea level strength for skin infections (fatal for eg cories).

It would be useful to consolidate threads and provide updates on progress. This will reduce guess-work imo.

As mentioned, I find it useful to picture the infection on a person. Clean water and tonic salt are imo a nice quiet room and some panadol. Can it work, yep. Will it work always, no - then antibiotics is the next level.

————-

Depends on the fish however I’m going to say a second furan treatment will be needed.

As a rule of thumb I've managed to get cures within one treatment schedule (one lot) but it has been commonly noted that two lots of treatment (using both meds) is needed.