PLEASE HELP! Can Columnaris Persist After Two Treatmente?

[nellafantasia]

I have a 20 gallon long. There's 6 Corydoras sterbai, one fancy guppy and one Whitecloud minnow. Three of the 6 corys got columnaris. I did not know what it was at first. Two had tell tale loss of color in a patch of scales, one on the top of the head and another a greyish patch on one side. One had a flat white lesion where I must have missed the columnaris sooner. I followed the treatment course below.

• Day 1: Furan-2 and KanaPlex
• Day 2: Furan-2
• Day 3: 25% water change, Furan-2 and KanaPlex
• Day 4: Furan-2
• Day 5: 25% water change, Furan-2 and KanaPlex

After a 50% water change and carbon removal by filter I repeated the above course of meds. I added a Day 6 with another dose of Furan-2. The lesions remained smaller but normal color had not returned. I lastly did a 30% water change and removal of meds using a filter with carbon. Water parameters were all good. No ammonia, no nitrite and nitrates 10ppm.

Does the lack of normal coloration indicate the columnaris is still active? Will there be permanent scaring? Should I do third course of Kanaplex and Furan-2?

I tried for over a hour to figure out how to post an image from my samsung phone to this forum unsuccessfully. I will try to attach an image from my Facebook page. I hope it works so one of the affected fish can be seen.

Facebook

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[nellafantasia]

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=4895643337172411&set=a.195428053860653

I would like to add that all fish are active and feeding well. There are no behavioral indicators that they are sick.

 

[the loach]

6 days is way to short... you need to treat at the very least 10 days, or you'll just be culturing resistent columnaris bacteria.

 

[FreshyFresh]

If it is for sure columnaris and you are dosing the recommended amount for the recommended amount of time, the meds should completely take care of it.

If the symptoms persist, it could be something viral or water quality related.

For your pictures, it's best to use an image hosting site. One that i use is imgur. There's lots of them out there.

 

[nellafantasia]

Thank you so much for your prompt reply. I have spent hours today trying to figure out what to do next. Aquarium Fish Tropical in California was thesource for most of my fish and plants (now dead from the meds). It was recommended by one of the owners that I try to find Merthiolate to apply directly to the fish to sort of cauterize the wounds so they will heal without further infection.

Well wouldn't you know .... no one carries tincture of merthiolate anymore. Trying to get someone on the phone to do an emergency shipment I was willing to pay for was useless. Since covid happened accessing companies through websites may as well be occurring in a third world country. Either people were clueless or I got hung up on as many as three times by one store that carried it.

So my plan B is to go to Walgreens and buy Tincture of Iodine to apply via Q-tip to the lesions on my three little corys. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks again for your input.

 

[nellafantasia]

If it is for sure columnaris and you are dosing the recommended amount for the recommended amount of time, the meds should completely take care of it.

If the symptoms persist, it could be something viral or water quality related.

For your pictures, it's best to use an image hosting site. One that i use is imgur. There's lots of them out there.

I have decided to not cauterize the wounded area with the tincture of iodine I managed to find in town. It does appears that coloration is gradually returning to the areas affected by the columnaris. I am giving it another 18 hours. If by then there does not continue to be improvement I may do a third course of antibiotics. Or the iodine. I have not decided yet which.

 

[nellafantasia]

Thank you so much for your prompt reply. I have spent hours today trying to figure out what to do next. Aquarium Fish Tropical in California was thesource for most of my fish and plants (now dead from the meds). It was recommended by one of the owners that I try to find Merthiolate to apply directly to the fish to sort of cauterize the wounds so they will heal without further infection.

Well wouldn't you know .... no one carries tincture of merthiolate anymore. Trying to get someone on the phone to do an emergency shipment I was willing to pay for was useless. Since covid happened accessing companies through websites may as well be occurring in a third world country. Either people were clueless or I got hung up on as many as three times by one store that carried it.

So my plan B is to go to Walgreens and buy Tincture of Iodine to apply via Q-tip to the lesions on my three little corys. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks again for your input.

I decided to wait another 18 hours as it appears the coloration is gradually returning to the injured areas.

 

[nellafantasia]

6 days is way to short... you need to treat at the very least 10 days, or you'll just be culturing resistent columnaris bacteria.

Soooo........ Could I have been cross-contaminating my tank by using the same bucket to mix and add new water that I used to carry out the dirty water to the toilet???? Blush blush. I figured it was not a closed sterile system so it would not matter. Am I wrong or nuts? Or both??? My niece took the fresh water bucket to collect Lake Superior rocks. So since August 12 I have used the same bucket. I bought a new bucket yesterday.

I just now did a 30% water change and began another course of Kanaplex and Furan-2. This time I will only use the dirty bucket for water to throw out. I will use the new bucket for water to add. So what do you think?

 

[NoahLikesFish]

I’d say that 6 days isn’t long enough I’d do like 2 weeks after coumnaris is gone

 

[Rbishop]

I'd say follow the medications recommended treatment plan if using meds. There isn't any reason to dose for an extended period of time and may cause unwanted effects, besides expense.

You could have been promoting cross contamination.

Personally, the cost of the meds for fighting columnaris for me.