bacterial infection?

wolf13

wolf13

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Mar 13, 2007
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I picked up some new cardinal tetra's this week and already lost two of the five. I had a nervous feeling when i got them that they were too pale and soemthign wa snot right, but didn't see anything outwardly wrong til the next day (acclimated and left in low light) aside from the fact they went straight to the surface like they were having trouble breathing. after an hour or so all but one was swimming and he followed after about a half hour (nose to surface). last night when i turned on the lights when i got home they had colored up but on three of them I noticed a red, velvetly layer had appeared in a patch on their boddies, obscuring the blue in one case. these three also had started to shimmy, and one developed trouble swimming and started to tail/headstand. That one was one of the two that died this morning. looking through the guides, i could find nothing that really sounded like what i was seeing. the other two are fine, so far, but i really would like to know what i am facing.

no ammonia or nitrite, normal acclimation, temp in qt 78-79*
 
Wow that is really strange. You tested the water right away im assuming? How did you acclimate these fish ?
 
I am not trying to blame you sorry if it sounded that way just trying to figure out the cause buddy :)
 
i kept them in the dark so to speak on the way home, then with the room lights off, just the lights from the next room floated the bag for 30 minutes, then added tank water in increments over the next 20-30 minutes. total bag time was probably an hour and 45 to two hours due to travel time. store water is the same aquifer as my water and my qt tank. probably overkill.

now, this is a petsmart i bought em from, but this is normally a very good petsmart i've bought cardinals from before with no trouble. this time though, although i closely looked at a lot of the other stock over the course of two weeks before buying (and no, i saw nothing out of the ordinary in those tanks), I was not able to inspect the cardinal tank well as it was a top shelf tank. my guess is they were already infected and the stress of moving brought it full on.
 
Columnaris. Treat with Maracyn or Tetracyline. Salt could help reduce it's progression, but is not a total cure. Lower the temps if you can, and increase airation and water movement. Disinfect all equipment that's come in contact with these fish, it's highly contageous.

There are some documents on these forums for this Gram-Negative disease. "Cotton wool", "Saddle disease", and "Mouth rot" are some of it's other names.
 
If it is Columnaris, you have to use Maracyn-2 or Tetracyline. (Maracyn-2 may be better.) Maracyn is for gram-positive bacteria infection and not going to work against Columnaris.

shawnhu said:
Columnaris. Treat with Maracyn or Tetracyline. Salt could help reduce it's progression, but is not a total cure. Lower the temps if you can, and increase airation and water movement. Disinfect all equipment that's come in contact with these fish, it's highly contageous.

There are some documents on these forums for this Gram-Negative disease. "Cotton wool", "Saddle disease", and "Mouth rot" are some of it's other names.
Click to expand...
 
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134928

Refer to the link above for treating Columnaris. When dealing with bacterial infections, it's almost always better to treat with a broad spectrum for secondary infections as well as primary.

Either case, one must act fast with this highly infectious disease.
 
thanks. thats what i was afraid it was. I had a differnt strain of it when i first started but couldn't figure out what else it could be.
 
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