Columnaris Help!

[nacra99]

I think my Altums have Columnaris.
See post 18 on here

Stuff that i have tried are meth blue, nitrofurazone, furazolidone, potassium dichromate, primafix & melafix. This seems to have slowed the onset of the disease but still hasn't stopped it from spreading.

Maracyn 2 targets gram negative flexibacter and i'm going to try that next, but i've tried that last year and it wasn't effective then.

Does anybody know of any other gram negative antibiotics?

thanks!!

[eklikewhoa]

How is the water quality?
I would suggest every other day water changes with Sodium Chloride and Magnesium Sulfate if it's in the early stages or if you are not on your last stretch.

If they are still eating you could look for Oxytetracycline to be administered with the food.

Bactrim or sulfa based meds will help. Erythromycin (Maracyn), nitrofurazone, nifurpirinol, acriflavine, chloramphenicol or tetracycline are also suitable treatments.

[FuzzyDragon09]

I once brought some Tiger Barbs that had some columnaris. I didn't know till I brought them home and one of them died and I started researching. The others all caught it and died in the next few days. At the same time I bought the Tiger Barbs I had also bought a RTS. He didn't show any signs of the disease but I still wanted to save him.

I treated the tank with API Triple Sulfa and used it per the box instructions. Also, I used the whole box. The dosage is one packet for every 10 gallons. There are 10 packets in the standard box. My fish were in a 10 gallon aquarium so my treatment was 15 days using all 10 packets. If you use this, I would get yourself enough to treat for two weeks (about how long I treated mine).

And my RTS survived. He never showed any signs of disease (not even while I treated the tank) and lived healthy, happy life for a few months (until I accidentally killed him with a full dose of Parasite Clear :icon_hang:). Anyways, this is what worked for me.

I hope your Angels make it. Don't give up! I've seen your other thread and they are beautiful!

[nacra99]

hmm.... sulfer based huh.....

Can i mix triple sulfa with Maracyn 2?

that way i'll have the minocycline activity for the gram negative flexibacter and the sulfers for secondary gram positive infections.

[eklikewhoa]

I probably wouldn't mix the two.... just in case.

What I would do is dose one day and the other the following. Alternating.

[nacra99]

Damn.... seems like someone else in SW houston has columnaris too or something... petco and petsmart are all sold out or Maracyn 2!

Off to FG i go.......

75 (lets say 80) gal, 5 days of treatment with Maracyn 2 means that i need 48 packets! That's alot of antibiotics....

[wesleydnunder]

There is more than one strain of bacteria classed as columnaris. I've had good results with a combo of Maracyn for gram pos. and Maracyn II for gram neg. Also, columnaris likes warm water so dropping the temp down to 75 or 76 and keeping it there helped prevent recurrences. Keep an eye on water quality when using combinations of antibiotics to make sure benificial bacteria don't get impaired.

Mark

[nacra99]

Lost another one today.... he grew a whole head of fuzz which totally covered his forehead.

The good news is that the others are doing much better. The lesions are starting to heal. I have kept up the 50% WC and daily dosing of Maracyn 1 and a double dose of Maracyn 2. Fingers crossed....