Treating columnaris, with inverts

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korin123456789

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Dec 7, 2007
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Montreal, Qc
hi sadly enough i purchased a female guppy that had colimnaris and now others in my tank have it also, so i'm getting ready to treat but from what i understand the antibacterial meds are really bad on inverts, so i'm hoping to find a med that's not bad for them, but not sure if i will be able to.
So my second choice is to remove my shrimp & snail from the tank and place them for now in my other tank but i don'T want the disease to follow them, won't it be in the water i tranfert them with ? i'm a little at a lost i am very new to this hobby and would like any info to minimize loss or infecting of this horrible disease
Thanks
 
Almost every reference I see on Columnaris states how ubiquitous the bacteria is in the environment. Is it possible to remove the infected fish to a quaranting/hospital tank and treat them? It would help the other inhabitants to do a water change on the tank the infected fish were in also.
I've had fish with minor infections that cleared up just from doing water changes/keeping the fish healthy. What is a minor infection vs. major? That isn't so easy to describe in writing and isn't something I would guess at if you haven't seen it very much. Take into consideration the overall appearance/health of the fish too. If the infection(s) is getting worse or spreading, you should definitely treat it. Sorry, I can't help with the invert safe medication :confused:
 
beviking said:
Is it possible to remove the infected fish to a quaranting/hospital tank and treat them?
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Well the infected one has been quarentine for about 2 days now and i'm starting to see signs in my other female(yesterday she only has a tinny spot on her side and from what i see today has a discoloration where the saddleback would be, so pretty sure she's got it too that's why i wanted to treat the whole tank(still have 2 other fishies in there), because if i take her out she will have no heater nor filter so... not sure what's best
 
Hi korin! I just had a columnaris attack 2 weeks ago as well with a female guppy. I transfered her into a 2.5g and treated her with pimafix and melafix for 1 week. She stayed in the 2.5g for another 4 days after treatment. She has no more signs of columnaris!

Just move her out of her main tank and into a QT to treat her. If no other fish has it at the moment, then your tank should be fine..
 
i don't know everyone, I know you've all said to move to a quarantine tank, but all the research I've done (see my latest article thread on columnaris at http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134928 ) says it's important to treat the tank as well.

Columnaris is extremely contagious. Once there's an outbreak in the tank, it's important to treat the tank as well as the sick fish.

Your best bet is to move the inverts to another tank while you treat the sick tank. Since you don't want to infect fish in a different tank, I would find a small 2.5 gallon or 5 gallon that they can be in all by themselves for a while.

All meds to treat columnaris are toxic to inverts. Just be sure not to use a copper-based med - no malachite green either - and wait at least two days after replacing the filter carbon to put the inverts back in. i would also do a large water change + gravel vacuum to be sure the meds are gone.
 
korin123456789 said:
Well the infected one has been quarentine for about 2 days now and i'm starting to see signs in my other female(yesterday she only has a tinny spot on her side and from what i see today has a discoloration where the saddleback would be, so pretty sure she's got it too that's why i wanted to treat the whole tank(still have 2 other fishies in there), because if i take her out she will have no heater nor filter so... not sure what's best
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Put them all in the same QT tank. If you're treating for a week, do a few water changes in the original tank to help lower the #'s of bacteria (columaris) in the water. Don't forget, there are always bacteria present. There is a relationship between pathogen (bacteria in this case), host (the fish) and environment (the tank:silly:) in which the host can exist without infection unless (1)there are too many pathogens, (2)the immune system/defense of the host is comprimised, and/or (3)the environment degrades and is not ideally suited to the host which directly affects #2 and may/may not affect #1. I won't argue that columnaris can be highly contagious but I would argue that it isn't highly contagious in all situations:)

Being one who keeps inverts, I will do everything else before adding meds to a tank that may harm inverts. You cannot measure for residual medication in a tank, at least most can't. You change water, use carbon and hope it's all gone. IF you go that route, only add a few inverts back in afterwards as "test subjects" to see if the meds are gone. I'd wait 48hrs to be sure before adding more too.
 
Thanks flaringshutter :hearts: I try :)
 
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