# Treating Columnaris



## Lord Nibbler (Dec 22, 2005)

I have lately been having some disease problems in my community rainbowfish tank. A couple of weeks ago, several cories died "mysterious" deaths very suddenly. I couldn't determine a cause until this week when one of my rainbows got sick and another cory died.

The Bosemoni is at the surface ignoring everything, swiming slowly and panting. The cause became apparent today (2nd day it has been sick) as Columnaris as there are some stringy white blotches on its body and mouth. Until I just did some research, I hadn't known the Columnaris can cause sudden mysterious deaths as well.

My LFS, which is pretty great at this stuff, recommended I use Maracyn-two (when I talked to them and wasn't sure what kind of bacterial infection). Looking at the recommendations though, it says Maracyn-one is better for Columnaris infections.

Has anyone had luck treating this disease, or at least preventing its spread?


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## jhj (Feb 18, 2006)

I have treated Columnaris in my planted rainbow tank with Mela-Fix and 
Pima-Fix. Yes, I used them togather. They do not harm the bio filter and does not stain the silicone. Treat for 14 days, label says 7, but go for 14.


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## 247Plants (Mar 23, 2006)

I also just treated for hole in the head with pimafix and melafix.....only 10 days for me tho, and it cleared everything up just fine. I didnt do any waterchanges like a lot of people recommend while dosing it and didnt lose ANYTHING and I have dwarf gourami fry and lots of inverts......If these are too expensive, they are made with tea tree oil and bay leaf oil...might be able to find those at health supply stores cheaper, not sure.


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## Lord Nibbler (Dec 22, 2005)

I used them in the past and had some fish recover from really bad Columnaris, but this strain seems resistant. Thinking back, I had some mysterious deaths about 6 months ago I attributed to changing water chemistry while trying to stabilize the nutrients. It would mean the Columnaris has hung on and zapped healthy fish through that treatment.

24 hours later here, no more deaths from toxic shock. The bosemoni is still amazingly hanging in after 3 days. The ulcers and film on his sides cleared up, but his mouth infection seems worse. Since I got home from work an hour ago, he's been shimmying a little at the top, but not losing his balance (if you call it that for fish). I'm not sure if its from his mouth itching or if its last gasps, hoping for the best. Fortunately he was a fat fish and has survived not eating for a couple days!

One kind of somewhat extreme treatment I have read is a rather strong salt solution bath. Has anyone ever tried it?


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## Lord Nibbler (Dec 22, 2005)

The poor Bosemoni died  Fortunately the other fish look ok, other than some ich spots that flared up then were gone the next morning.

Slight tangent to treating bacterial diseases - is it reasonable for a large nitrite/ammonia spike to occur after using antibiotic treatments?


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## Jane in Upton (Aug 10, 2005)

Aw, sorry about the loss of your fish. The ammonia/nitrate spike could be from bacterial deaths from the antibiotic - the beneficial bacteria die too, leaking their contents into the water. Just as the body of a dead fish can pollute the water, so can large numbers of tiny bacteria "bodies", if there are enough of them.

-Jane


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## Lord Nibbler (Dec 22, 2005)

I expected as much, thanks. I had to rinse (not scrub off all the good bacteria [-X ) the filters, as the bacterial slime on them was falling off.

I changed about 40% of the water yesterday and the nitrites are still scary high, although the fish seem ok. Will changing more water help, or is that just zapping all the nitrogen-cycle bacteria along with the bad?
(Certainly not trying more antibiotics till this nitrite thing is handled!)

On a side note - the big nitrite spike was from the Maracyn, not the Maracyn-2 if that helps in ID'ing what bacteria were getting splattered. I forget which kills Gram+ and which Gram-


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