Columnaris?

[Mari]

My fish developed columnaris disease, and when I first noticed something wrong I had no idea what it was. Now I went out and bought rid ich, and it seemed to help my tiger barbs...they seem to be doing a whole lot better,but one of my red minor tetras seems to be in bad shape, even after I went out and bought EM tablets which made my other tetras a whole lot better as well. What can I do about this poor tetra? could the other tetras still be in bad shape? they don't appear as bad as the one tetra...I have been doing regular water changes, and they are now all eating...they were really in bad shape for a while. They developed columnaris because of 2 new fish I had bought that i didn't quarantine...

[Lexus]

What is columnaris and how do you know they have it?

[Fishfirst]

Its a bacterial infection... rid ich isn't made to kill bacteria! I'm surprised that some of your fish got better... are you sure it is this disease?

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/di...columnaris.htm

this goes over basic diagnosis and treatment.

[Mari]

It definately sounds like columnaris to me. it was the closest thing I could get to how they looked, and were behaving. I believe they got it from two new fish I bought, that I was later told had just been brought into the pet shop the previous day. I lost one of the ones I bought 2 days after bringing it home, because he had a large whitish silver mark on his side. I now have two tiger barbs with no marks on them whatsoever, One with a little white still on his lip, two red minors with a small (very small hardly noticeable) mark on their dorsal fin (looking saddle like) and a little on their lips, one completely clear and one in terrible shape, he has a lot of white around him...on his lips, on his "back" and some on his side. I believe the one in terrible shape is the other that I bought from the shop. I am surprised it has made it so far. The EM tablets were recommended to me on a disease site, and they really did improve the conditions of the tetras, they were all not eating, and now have started to again, as well as removing the white. I don't know how, but rid-ich did help somewhat for the Tiger barbs...they all gained appetite after a few treatments and began breathing a lot easier. The rid ich I bought says it is for fungal infections, both internal and external, so that could be the reason why it helped. I have another 4 EM tablets and will repeat treatment in hopes that it will help. How do I put aquarium salt in, however? Won't it kill the fish?

[Fishfirst]

EM tablets... hmmm I forget what they are for... but you can put aquarium salt in your water and it won't kill the fish in small doses... 1tablespoon/ten gallons is usually the dose, although some fish are harmed by this... (cories for example) Most tetras, barbs, mollys, etc are fine though.

[Mari]

thanks, I might try the salt if I am still having problems. EM tablets say they treat cotton mouth and also lesions on the skin without apparent cause...as well as a number of other things, I don't have the package with me. I do believe they are for bacterial infections though.

[Fishfirst]

yeah sounds like it