Possible Columnaris?? HELP!!!!!

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Ok....I am not sure what to think now. This morning, 2 of my rainbows look worse. I am not sure if perhaps its the dead skin just falling off now, or if they truly are getting worse. They have what looks like maybe dead skin flapping off thier top lips, like how a sunburn peels and flakes off.
Is this part of the healing, or am I way off base and this is a new or continuing problem?
More pics from this morning
 

Attachments

  • ForumRunner_20130321_103539.jpg
    ForumRunner_20130321_103539.jpg
    42.4 KB · Views: 62
  • ForumRunner_20130321_103918.jpg
    ForumRunner_20130321_103918.jpg
    49.7 KB · Views: 53
Kimlafeiet said:
one more pic
Click to expand...

Their overall color looks good. I can't really tell from the pictures, but is the area that is peeling, look infected? The PP bath killed the bacteria, but what left is dead tissue from the infection.

For now, keep up with the water changes with added salt.

Do you have any methylene blue? It's a mild treatment for fungal and bacteria infections (it's used by fish breeders to keep eggs from getting fungus). It does kill nitrifying bacteria so it's a QT treatment. You can buy from Amazon.com. I use it as my first line of defense when treating fish that are ailing from some unknown disease. It's good to use in alone, or in combination with an antibiotic. It's not a "drug" so the pathogens do not build a resistance to it.
 
I don't have any methylene blue, just malachite green and some Jungle fungus clear, which I think has Nitrofurazone.
I have to stop by Pestmart tonight for more Prime, so I will check to see if they carry any there, if not, I will order it from Amazon.
I am hoping it is just the dead skin falling away. Thier lips don't look infected, and actually, the one who was the worst off, looks remarkably improved.
 
Most pet stores will not carry meth blue because its so cheap. Go figure. Amazon is the fastest, but for the same amount of $$ you can buy it dry which will last for years at angels plus.com. If you haven't been to this web store I suggest to take a look. They sell live fish plus medicated food and fish drugs.
 
Im sure you and your fish are sick of meds. No pun intended. I am no expert fish keeper although i do keep fancy guppies and f. Goldfish. Both of which get flex column when they come in from shipping and hit the petstores. I have had some sucess with maracyn 2 minocycline but it is pricey and dosent work well in my hard water here. I can only reccomend oxytetracycline medicated food and an antibiotic and keeping the water clean and cool. I would do that a. ampicillin and if it dosent work put him down. I hate this disease and there really is no all in one quick cure. No reason too keep him suffering with powerful potentially hazardous chemicals. Best of luck
 
Thanks Matt, I am not at a point where I feel these guys need to be euthanized, they are not getting any worse, and while I dont see amazing improvement, I think they still have a good chance of recovery. Eating well, color is good, large daily water changes with aquarium salt only.
I agree with not wanting to use any more meds, it has been hard on them. I have Maracyn 2, which I tried at first, but I have hard water here too, so it was a pretty futile attempt. I also have some tertacycline, but I am holding out with the water changes and salt for now.

Unfortunately, my main tank may be taking a turn for the worse......one of my guppies had a large tear in his tail this morning, and within 12 hrs his tail had basically rotted away. I put him down this evening, but the other guppy and my dwarf gourami look like they may be getting the beginning of fin rot as well. I suppose I will know for sure by morning. All params are normal 0/0/5, did an extra pwc this week as well. Ugh. Definitely feeling bummed right now :-(
 
Update: after speaking with the breeder I got them from, and all the treatments I have given them, we figured perhaps they were bumping into glass and running thier chins along the barebottom.
I have moved them from QT back to the 55 gallon, and they seem much happier after 10 days back in the big tank. They are all healing slowly but surely, only one has a sore on his chin at the moment.
Fast foward to yesterday. I rescaped my tank adding sand and removed gravel. Fish were in a bucket with heat and filter. One of the rainbows took a leap for it. Luckily I was right there and got him back into the bucket lickety split. No harm, no foul.
Today one of the fish has a small sore (looks like missing scales raw spot) on his upper side. I dont know if this is the fish that jumped or not, they all look too identical. Hoping this is just an owie from the trasition yesterday. Treated with melafix and pimafix, will dose tank for a few days and watch.
Crappy part is that I have another 4 of these guys ordered and paid for, and am supposed to go pick them up this weekend. Yikes....last thing I need is to infect anothr 50 bucks worth of fish with something. :(
I swear, these rainbows are gonna be the death of me!
 
I would buy a ten gallon and keep the new fish in there for acouple weeks. After that use it as a hospital tank. Keeping the water clean and cool dose with kanamycin and feed with oxytetracycline medicated feed. Your fish with bacterial infections should pull thru if you do this. Or if you have soft or acidic water use maracyn 1/2 combo. I raise guppies for years and i have dealt with and studied flexibacter and aeromanos infections and this isyour best cure.:dance:
 
Kimlafeiet said:
Update: after speaking with the breeder I got them from, and all the treatments I have given them, we figured perhaps they were bumping into glass and running thier chins along the barebottom.
I have moved them from QT back to the 55 gallon, and they seem much happier after 10 days back in the big tank. They are all healing slowly but surely, only one has a sore on his chin at the moment.
Fast foward to yesterday. I rescaped my tank adding sand and removed gravel. Fish were in a bucket with heat and filter. One of the rainbows took a leap for it. Luckily I was right there and got him back into the bucket lickety split. No harm, no foul.
Today one of the fish has a small sore (looks like missing scales raw spot) on his upper side. I dont know if this is the fish that jumped or not, they all look too identical. Hoping this is just an owie from the trasition yesterday. Treated with melafix and pimafix, will dose tank for a few days and watch.
Crappy part is that I have another 4 of these guys ordered and paid for, and am supposed to go pick them up this weekend. Yikes....last thing I need is to infect anothr 50 bucks worth of fish with something. :(
I swear, these rainbows are gonna be the death of me!
Click to expand...



I'm glad they are still ALIVE! And mostly healing except for the jumper. Keep the main tank water clean with frequent water changes. Melafix + Primafix is good for healing injuries.

I agree with keeping the new fish in QT for a few weeks so that you don't introduce a disease to either groups of fish. If you have a cycled sponge filter, use that in the QT so that you don't have to change out the water every day. The breeder may be able to sell you one. Or, if you have a HOB filter, you could transfer some of your media from your filter to the HOB.

Although I recommend putting new fish in Meth Blue, you are getting your fish from a breeder, so I would just keep them in clean water for observation and treat when you see something crop up. You could add 1 tbs. of salt per 10 gallon in QT. Keep us updated and please post pixes of your new fish. :fish2:
 
I have a QT tank all ready to go for the new fish, existing hob filter on my goldie tank just waiting for thier arrival, and I did order Meth Blue a couple weeks ago, but ended up not using it because the rainbows have been doing so good, but I do now have it on hand, as well as all the other stuff I treated them with. Haha. I dont think this is or ever was Columnaris, as I am sure these guys would have kicked the bucket weeks ago, and now that they are in the big tank again, they are doing very well.
"Jumper" is also looking better tonight too. His sore looks no worse, maybe even a little better, and he is eating well. Hopefully he is on the mend :)
 
Oh.....and I will post new pics when I get the new rainbow crew. I feel kinda bad making them live in a 10 gallon but I whole heartedly believe in quarentine these days :)
 
Kimlafeiet said:
Oh.....and I will post new pics when I get the new rainbow crew. I feel kinda bad making them live in a 10 gallon but I whole heartedly believe in quarentine these days :)
Click to expand...

Exactly! Water change frequently in the 10G even if you have a seeded HOB filter. To be on the safe side, do water parameter tests in the beginning to see if you get an ammonia spike.


And don't use Methylene blue with a seeded filter since it will kill off all the good bacteria. Use as a dip instead, with a higher concentration of blue of 1 tsp/5 gallons for 1/2 hour. Just use heater and airstone since it's only 1/2 hour.

Use aged (have it sitting in the bucket over night) dechlor water for the dip.

To keep the main QT free of the blue, dip in a bucket. You can add 1 to 2 tbs. of salt to the methylene blue if the fish tolerate salt.
 
I forgot to mention that you could dip them in methylene blue + salt just before you put them in the QT tank.
 
Do you think I should dip them when I get them as a preventative, even if they look good? The breeder I am getting them from has them in thier own tank waiting for me, and he says they are quite healthy, no issues seen. I do trust this guy, as I have dealt with him a lot, and every fish I have gotten from him has been in perfect health. Even this first group of rainbows seems healthy, they just keep ramming thier faces into stuff, lol.
But now they have some odd poop, and I am back to being paranoid about them.......
 
If you trust him, skip the meth dip. Just add salt to the QT tank. I would fill a bucket the day you get the fish. Have it on standby for the next 2 days with heater and airstone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Betta fish Columnaris?
Replies
6
Views
342
Parsely
P
E
Advice for Treating Columnaris
Replies
1
Views
2K
Autumnsky
Autumnsky
F
Vita chem & possible fungus(?)
Replies
3
Views
282
Andy Sager
Andy Sager
B
Sick guppies--columnaris or something else?
Replies
0
Views
763
bennyblee
B
F
Anyone have experience with sick banjo catfish/lumps on fish?
Replies
7
Views
765
Andy Sager
Andy Sager

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom