Suspected Columnaris

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

pH 6.8

ammonia 0

nitrate and nitrite 0

TDS 120

kh 2

gh 4

temp 78

light period finnex 24/7 setting with an additional marine land led currently off during treatment. 
 

One of my bronze corys has struggled last few months. I think he got into It with a female beta over a sinking wafer. Since that time I have dosed the tank with salt to allow his wounds and fins to heal and he was looking better. Then about 3 months into this tank I introduced some panda corys after a 3 week quarantine (from Aqua Huna). One died within an hour of placing in the Quarantine tank, another died a day later but the other 4 started to eat and looked good, small 3/8”-1/2”. Fast forward 3 months and suddenly another panda Cory dies, a female betta dies and a flame tetra on consecutive days. I discovered my heater had died and temp dropped from 78 to 68 and the heaters replaced and working properly. A couple fish were looking listless - my female apisto and the bronze Cory. I treated the whole tank with the medication trio and within days the Cory and a female Apistogramma cacutoides broke out in white blotches - I’ve attached a pic of this Cory white on his nose, sides and back and the apisto on her lips, eyelid and along the dorsal into the side scale. Not fuzzy and sticking out like ich it was right along the Skin of the The fish.  I waited 5 days After Med trio and am now on day 4 of another 5 days of Maracyn Along with fritz aquarium salt 2 teaspoons twice daily. I’ve placed an extra air stone in the tank and my hydor korralia mini goes off 4 times a day for 30 minutes to move waste to the Eheim 2217 intake. I also have a Ziss bubbler on there. 

Am I on the right track? Would you do anything differently?  @Cory

[Jessica.]

Could you get some better images of the fish? It's difficult to see what's going on in these. I know I'm not Cory, but maybe when he's able to look here, some clearer images would help.

Here are some of my thoughts. I hope I'm not stepping on any toes here by jumping in. If it is columnaris, you may want to try an antibiotic that targets gram-negative bacteria, because columnaris is gram-negative. My understanding is that Erythromycin(maracyn) is most effective against gram-positive bacteria, and best at a PH of 7 or above. If you've been treating for 9 days with maracyn and it hasn't helped, it might be time to try a different antibiotic.

Here is some info from University of Florida about antibiotics in ornamental fish, which I find quite useful. If you scroll towards the bottom, they list common antibiotic we use in the hobby, and what they're best used for. 

This article describes columnaris, and recommends treatment of nitrofurazone (API Furan-2) and kanamycin (Seachem Kananplex). Which lines up with the the University of Florida paper recommends. 

I have in my meds box this trio of kanamycin, nitrofurazone, and metronidazole. It is what I would use if I suspected columnaris, if water changes + salt were not helping after a few days.

 

Edited October 17, 2020 by Jessica.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Thanks Jessica- I think I need to give this more time at least finish this course of meds and see what comes over the next week before bombing it again with another antibiotic. I treated x 1 for the Med trio and am on day 5 of the Maracyn so not quite 9 days of therapy. I’m going to give the last dose of Maracyn today, do a 30% water change, Continue salt daily, load up some carbon to clean out the water and put some Fritz 7 in and maybe do 2 water changes this week. If I don’t see continued healing then I’ll pull the trigger on the API or Seachem products. Do you have a preference between the 2? Does this seem reasonable?

[Jessica.]

33 minutes ago, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Thanks Jessica- I think I need to give this more time at least finish this course of meds and see what comes over the next week before bombing it again with another antibiotic. I treated x 1 for the Med trio and am on day 5 of the Maracyn so not quite 9 days of therapy. I’m going to give the last dose of Maracyn today, do a 30% water change, Continue salt daily, load up some carbon to clean out the water and put some Fritz 7 in and maybe do 2 water changes this week. If I don’t see continued healing then I’ll pull the trigger on the API or Seachem products. Do you have a preference between the 2? Does this seem reasonable?

 A note is that the recommendation from those sources I link above is to use both kanamycin and nitrofurazone together. So, it's not a one or the other choice – if you decide to try this option, use both together at full dose. The med combo I linked to from discususa.com is a blend of 3 antibiotics, meant to be dosed all together. But, I names furan-2 and kanaplex because it's likely a LFS will carry both those, so you don't have to wait on shipping. Columnaris can be stubborn and difficult to eradicate. It's also difficult to correctly identify which bacterial infection a fish is suffering without a microscope. I'm not saying you should or shouldn't try these meds  – definitely do your own research, and hopefully someone else can chime in. 

16 hours ago, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

I waited 5 days After Med trio and am now on day 4 of another 5 days of Maracyn Along with fritz aquarium salt 2 teaspoons twice daily.

I understood this to mean you ran the med trio (including maracyn) for a week, then waited 5 days, then treated with maracyn again for 5 days. That would be more than 9 days of treatment with maracyn total? Are you seeing improvement with the erythromycin (maracyn)? Maybe I misunderstood, I though the original post said this cropped up while you were treating with the med trio, including maracyn. 

I think other may find your results helpful here, even if you lose more fish. Keep us posted. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I used the Med trio x 1 then waited 5 days, perhaps I read the instructions wrong on their use in combination. So it would be 6 days of Maracyn. 
 

the Apistogramma is looking much improved barely any white patches, the white around the mouth and eyes seems to have resolved. The Cory some improvement but I don’t see the shimmying I saw previous- more normal Corydoras eating behavior in the substrate, going to the top for a gulp of air. 

I guess the question now is should I run the Maracyn another couple days or stop at day 5 as per package directions? I’ve attached an updated pic to see if that helps.