I am just having a heck of a time with columnaris and my guppies!
First I had 3 female guppies get columnaris shortly after coming home, and die within days. I think this could have been partly because my tank was still cycling. Ammonia was hovering around 0.25ppm and nitrites were a little high. Chalk that up to noobery.
Once my tank got cycled and ammonia and nitrites were staying at 0ppm, I figured it was safe to replenish the population. Brought home 2 new female guppies, and within a week, columnaris killed them both.
Had another female (one of the originals) get columnaris, and started using salt in my aquarium, at 1 teaspoon per gallon. Ok, this female has now been alive with columnaris for at least 2 weeks, but it has slowly spread from one side, across her back, to the other side, so now she has the "columnaris saddle". Maybe the salt slowed down the columnaris? Since her columnaris doesn't look to be going away, now she is in a hospital tank on antibiotics, to see if that will save her.
Around the same time, I had 1 male die, who dropped dead without any symptoms or visible signs of problems. One day he was active and looked perfect, the next day he was dead. I don't know if this was related to columnaris or what.
Now, yesterday, I bring home 2 brand new females from Petsmart. They looked perfect in the store, no sign of any disease that I could see. Today, literally about 24 hours since I brought them home, I look in my tank and WOW! Columnaris explosion! BOTH of the new females have large whitened spots of columnaris, bigger in 1 day than the spot on my old female (in the hospital tank) who had it for 2 weeks already! One was overcome and died, couldn't be saved. Not only that, but my Molly (who has until now had zero health issues even when stressed) has a columnaris patch on her side it looks like on her eye too.
So, now ALL my fish (6 guppies and 1 molly) are in the hospital tank, being treated with salt and antibiotics.
What the heck am I doing wrong here?
Lately ammonia and nitrite have been staying at 0ppm, been doing weekly water changes, lots of plants in aquarium with a 10 hour photo period, water pH is about 7.8 consistently, water is very hard / lots of minerals (comes that way from the tap), temperature stays about 82 all the time. The water is salted at 1 teaspoon per gallon. Filtration is provided by a Marineland Penguin bio-wheel 100, which says it's good for up to 20 gallons, and this is a 10 gallon aquarium.
Any ideas why my aquarium seems to be such a perfect breeding ground for columnaris? I'm treating my fish with antibiotics now to try and cure them, but I'm worried it's just going to come back again once they are back in their columnaris-loving home!
I don't have any additional aeration in the tank, only what is provided by the bio-wheel filter. It says it will both filter and aerate the tank, with no need for air stones. Any chance it's not aerating enough, and I need to add an air stone? I doubt this is the issue, because the tank is heavily planted, and I always thought plants helped oxygenate the water, but what do I know.
Also, I read somewhere that most pet store guppies (as well as mollies) are raised on brackish water and too often they are purchased and placed in an environment with less salt than they are adjusted too, which weakens their immune system and boom, columnaris. Could that be it, could it be that I'm not using enough salt maybe? I noticed Petco (where I bought some of my guppies) uses salt in their tanks, but it looks like they don't measure and mix it, they have little plastic containers full of salt just sitting on the bottom of the tank. I have no idea how much salt they would be accustomed to.
Or can you think of anything else about my aquarium that could be encouraging columnaris outbreaks?
I'm getting so frustrated with the situation, tired of killing guppies!
Even if I cure my fish of columnaris, would it still be alive in the plants, substrate, bio film, filter, etc. of my tank? Would I need to sterilize the whole tank to avoid re-infecting the fish?
Side note, the ramshorn snails and cherry shrimp seem to be thriving, there are ramshorn eggs all over the undersides of the leaves of my sword and java fern. The cherry shrimp, who were babies to juveniles when I got them, seem to have doubled in size within a week, if that's possible. Could that be a sign that there is too much crud in my tank, which is good for the bottom feeders but bad for the fish? Maybe too much bio-film all over the plants and substrate? This is an issue I have been working on, but since I got a timer and set up a daily light schedule of 5 hours on / 3 hours off / 5 hours on, the thick coating all over my plants, as well as black algae on the sword and java fern, appear to be breaking up and sloughing off, and the plants seem to get cleaner every day. Could this algae or cyanobacteria (whichever it is) be a contributing factor?
Another note on the ramshorn snails - This is weird, but some of them look like they have ick. They have red skin, but some in my tank seem to have a dusting of white speckles on their skin, which looks sort of like ick. I know ramshorns don't get ick (right?) so I don't know what it is, or if I should be worried. Do ramshorns get columnaris? They don't seem to be affected by whatever it is, but how can you really tell with a snail... all I know is they are just cruising around eating as usual, and laying LOTS of eggs.
Could the lighting have anything to do with the algae problem, or the columnaris, or both (even if indirectly)? I am not happy with the light, it's a 15 watt fluorescent tube that just doesn't light up the aquarium very well for my taste. Worst of all, for me, is that the color temp seems to be too low, it's too warm-looking. It's too much of a yellowish glow. I would love to retrofit the canopy for a couple of cool-white 13 or so watt CFL bulbs!
Not to get off topic, but I saw at Petsmart that they were selling 18" lights for 10 gallon aquariums, that were labeled as incandescent, with 2 regular light bulb sockets. However, the light bulbs pictured on the packaging appeared to be long and skinny, shaped like half of a T5 fluorescent tube. Does anyone know if a twisty CFL bulb will fit in that type of incandescent light fixture, or will only the long skinny bulbs fit?
Any suggestions will be appreciated! Help me beat columnaris, because right now it's kicking my butt!
First I had 3 female guppies get columnaris shortly after coming home, and die within days. I think this could have been partly because my tank was still cycling. Ammonia was hovering around 0.25ppm and nitrites were a little high. Chalk that up to noobery.
Once my tank got cycled and ammonia and nitrites were staying at 0ppm, I figured it was safe to replenish the population. Brought home 2 new female guppies, and within a week, columnaris killed them both.
Had another female (one of the originals) get columnaris, and started using salt in my aquarium, at 1 teaspoon per gallon. Ok, this female has now been alive with columnaris for at least 2 weeks, but it has slowly spread from one side, across her back, to the other side, so now she has the "columnaris saddle". Maybe the salt slowed down the columnaris? Since her columnaris doesn't look to be going away, now she is in a hospital tank on antibiotics, to see if that will save her.
Around the same time, I had 1 male die, who dropped dead without any symptoms or visible signs of problems. One day he was active and looked perfect, the next day he was dead. I don't know if this was related to columnaris or what.
Now, yesterday, I bring home 2 brand new females from Petsmart. They looked perfect in the store, no sign of any disease that I could see. Today, literally about 24 hours since I brought them home, I look in my tank and WOW! Columnaris explosion! BOTH of the new females have large whitened spots of columnaris, bigger in 1 day than the spot on my old female (in the hospital tank) who had it for 2 weeks already! One was overcome and died, couldn't be saved. Not only that, but my Molly (who has until now had zero health issues even when stressed) has a columnaris patch on her side it looks like on her eye too.
So, now ALL my fish (6 guppies and 1 molly) are in the hospital tank, being treated with salt and antibiotics.
What the heck am I doing wrong here?
Lately ammonia and nitrite have been staying at 0ppm, been doing weekly water changes, lots of plants in aquarium with a 10 hour photo period, water pH is about 7.8 consistently, water is very hard / lots of minerals (comes that way from the tap), temperature stays about 82 all the time. The water is salted at 1 teaspoon per gallon. Filtration is provided by a Marineland Penguin bio-wheel 100, which says it's good for up to 20 gallons, and this is a 10 gallon aquarium.
Any ideas why my aquarium seems to be such a perfect breeding ground for columnaris? I'm treating my fish with antibiotics now to try and cure them, but I'm worried it's just going to come back again once they are back in their columnaris-loving home!
I don't have any additional aeration in the tank, only what is provided by the bio-wheel filter. It says it will both filter and aerate the tank, with no need for air stones. Any chance it's not aerating enough, and I need to add an air stone? I doubt this is the issue, because the tank is heavily planted, and I always thought plants helped oxygenate the water, but what do I know.
Also, I read somewhere that most pet store guppies (as well as mollies) are raised on brackish water and too often they are purchased and placed in an environment with less salt than they are adjusted too, which weakens their immune system and boom, columnaris. Could that be it, could it be that I'm not using enough salt maybe? I noticed Petco (where I bought some of my guppies) uses salt in their tanks, but it looks like they don't measure and mix it, they have little plastic containers full of salt just sitting on the bottom of the tank. I have no idea how much salt they would be accustomed to.
Or can you think of anything else about my aquarium that could be encouraging columnaris outbreaks?
I'm getting so frustrated with the situation, tired of killing guppies!
Even if I cure my fish of columnaris, would it still be alive in the plants, substrate, bio film, filter, etc. of my tank? Would I need to sterilize the whole tank to avoid re-infecting the fish?
Side note, the ramshorn snails and cherry shrimp seem to be thriving, there are ramshorn eggs all over the undersides of the leaves of my sword and java fern. The cherry shrimp, who were babies to juveniles when I got them, seem to have doubled in size within a week, if that's possible. Could that be a sign that there is too much crud in my tank, which is good for the bottom feeders but bad for the fish? Maybe too much bio-film all over the plants and substrate? This is an issue I have been working on, but since I got a timer and set up a daily light schedule of 5 hours on / 3 hours off / 5 hours on, the thick coating all over my plants, as well as black algae on the sword and java fern, appear to be breaking up and sloughing off, and the plants seem to get cleaner every day. Could this algae or cyanobacteria (whichever it is) be a contributing factor?
Another note on the ramshorn snails - This is weird, but some of them look like they have ick. They have red skin, but some in my tank seem to have a dusting of white speckles on their skin, which looks sort of like ick. I know ramshorns don't get ick (right?) so I don't know what it is, or if I should be worried. Do ramshorns get columnaris? They don't seem to be affected by whatever it is, but how can you really tell with a snail... all I know is they are just cruising around eating as usual, and laying LOTS of eggs.
Could the lighting have anything to do with the algae problem, or the columnaris, or both (even if indirectly)? I am not happy with the light, it's a 15 watt fluorescent tube that just doesn't light up the aquarium very well for my taste. Worst of all, for me, is that the color temp seems to be too low, it's too warm-looking. It's too much of a yellowish glow. I would love to retrofit the canopy for a couple of cool-white 13 or so watt CFL bulbs!
Not to get off topic, but I saw at Petsmart that they were selling 18" lights for 10 gallon aquariums, that were labeled as incandescent, with 2 regular light bulb sockets. However, the light bulbs pictured on the packaging appeared to be long and skinny, shaped like half of a T5 fluorescent tube. Does anyone know if a twisty CFL bulb will fit in that type of incandescent light fixture, or will only the long skinny bulbs fit?
Any suggestions will be appreciated! Help me beat columnaris, because right now it's kicking my butt!
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