Disease ID Request & Help

[eddie462]

Is the white growth on the Melanotaenia sahulensis columnaris or ich? I noticed growth with them first on Friday. That fish has the most growth, and the other six have this growth at various levels. An employee at my lfs said it was fungus, and to treat it with pimafix. I’ve been using that for 5 days and I haven’t seen any changes. I was going to continue the pimafix for 2 more days and then do a water change and treat with salt. These fish are in a 5.5g aquarium. 

The second picture is of a Rhadinocentrus Ornatus with white lips in a separate 10g quarantine tank. There’s 9 others that have white on their lips like that. I noticed the growth on the rhads yesterday. I put in 3 tablespoons of salt, and their lips haven’t changed. I put in a uv sterilizer into this aquarium Saturday to try and preempt an outbreak in this tank  

The last two pictures are of the aquariums. They’re unheated, the temperatures are 71-75 F, have 7.0 ph and 50 general hardness and 40 carbonate hardness. The 10g has a reticulated hillstream loach, a baby peppermint bristlenose pleco (L181), and adult & young least killifish. 

 

 

 

 

[Colu]

With the symptoms your describing and the white growths it could be columnaris recommended treatment is kanaplex and furan2 

[eddie462]

On 8/18/2021 at 11:30 PM, Colu said:

With the symptoms your describing and the white growths it could be columnaris recommended treatment is kanaplex and furan2 

 

On 8/19/2021 at 12:03 AM, Tankseeker said:

I have used purely salt to treat mild cases of columnaris to great effect but your case looks quite serious 

My lfs didn’t have any Furan-2, so I only bought the Kanaplex. I did a 50% water change on the 5.5g, and added in one dose of Kanaplex. 
 

I didn’t add any Kanaplex to the 10g, as I have fry in it and I’ve read that meds can kill fry. I did a 30% water change and added in another tablespoon of salt, to see if that helps first. This picture of the rhads is the best I could get of them. Their bottom lips are white and have a white perpendicular line beneath them in a “T” shape.
 

The water temp is actually 81 F in that tank. I had one sponge filter in there initially when I added the fish. The next day, two of rhads died and there was 0.5 ppm ammonia. I did a 50% and then added in the second established sponge filter(the first filter is established as well). Should I take one of those sponge filters out? 

[eddie462]

On 8/19/2021 at 7:36 PM, Tankseeker said:

@eddie462 no unless they have carbon in them leave them in, do you have Indian almond leaves?

I don’t have any. I have some extra pieces of spider wood I could boil, and a bag of Oak Leaves from Josh’s Frogs. Could I use that?

[Colu]

You can treat with kanaplex in food as far as am aware kanaplex shouldn't harm  fry columnaris spreads more quickly at higher temperatures I would lower the temperature to 75 degrees and you can use aquarium salt with kanaplex I would start at 1 table spoon for 3 gallons and then increase in a couple of days to 1 table spoon for 2 gallons as you don't have furan2 I would recommend doing two full courses of kanaplex back to back

Edited August 20, 2021 by Colu

[TankofFish]

On 8/19/2021 at 10:52 PM, Tankseeker said:

@Colu recommendation is quite excessive for columnaris i feel 

Colu is pretty much the fish doctor of the forum if I was eddie I would listen to colu.

Columnaris is pretty ugly and once it takes hold its a killer.

 @eddie462 jungle fungus clear is very close to furna-2(If you can't find the furna-2) it will work along with the kanaplex

you need that one two punch that colu is talking about. 

here is a link for  more info

Identify and Treat Columnaris (Saddle Back Disease) - FishLab

 

Edited August 20, 2021 by TankofFish

[TankofFish]

On 8/19/2021 at 11:09 PM, Tankseeker said:

@TankofFishi am not saying it is not effective but it is not the only thing that work

Columnaris is a killer once it sets in if not hit hard and fast with the right meds.

Good luck @eddie462 

[eddie462]

On 8/19/2021 at 9:17 PM, Colu said:

You can treat with kanaplex in food as far as am aware kanaplex shouldn't harm  fry columnaris spreads more quickly at higher temperatures I would lower the temperature to 75 degrees and you can use aquarium salt with kanaplex I would start at 1 table spoon for 3 gallons and then increase in a couple of days to 1 table spoon for 2 gallons as you don't have furan2 I would recommend doing two full courses of kanaplex back to back

 

On 8/19/2021 at 11:28 PM, TankofFish said:

Columnaris is a killer once it sets in if not hit hard and fast with the right meds.

Good luck @eddie462 

 

On 8/19/2021 at 11:04 PM, TankofFish said:

Colu is pretty much the fish doctor of the forum if I was eddie I would listen to colu.

Columnaris is pretty ugly and once it takes hold its a killer.

 @eddie462 jungle fungus clear is very close to furna-2(If you can't find the furna-2) it will work along with the kanaplex

you need that one two punch that colu is talking about. 

here is a link for  more info

Identify and Treat Columnaris (Saddle Back Disease) - FishLab

 

There’s another lfs in my area that has furan-2, so I’ll get some tomorrow morning. Thank you for the help

[quikv6]

If the Furan 2/Kanaplex combo doesn't work, another good option for Columnaris would be Sulfa-based meds. (API Triple Sulfa, and Seachem SulfaPlex). 

They will be tough to find, but can be quite effective against Columnaris. I had a Platy that had developed the white lips and slight graying of the scales in spots, and Triple Sulfa did the trick. I did not have luck with the Furan/KanaPlex combo with that particular fish. Colu is spot-on though, as that is usually the go-to combo for Columnaris.

[eddie462]

On 8/19/2021 at 9:17 PM, Colu said:

You can treat with kanaplex in food as far as am aware kanaplex shouldn't harm  fry columnaris spreads more quickly at higher temperatures I would lower the temperature to 75 degrees and you can use aquarium salt with kanaplex I would start at 1 table spoon for 3 gallons and then increase in a couple of days to 1 table spoon for 2 gallons as you don't have furan2 I would recommend doing two full courses of kanaplex back to back

I bought some Furan-2 and Focus today. I dosed Furan-2 only today in the 5.5g, so I’m at Day 2 from your previous post. I’ll keep following that dosing schedule, since I added Kanaplex the day before. 
 

I made the Kanaplex food mixture for the 10g and fed that to them. I also removed the uv sterilizer, which raised the temperature up, so it should go back down to 75 F.