# State of emergency... what is this sickness



## robo-snickers (Jun 12, 2012)

so my 72 gallon bowfront is going through some type of plague that i hop you guys can help me identify it and kill it.

my bowfront has been running fine for 7 months and i haven't had any problems until the last few days...
I went to the fish store to buy a two corys to add to my school. I am assuming this is how the plague reached my tank because after a day one of them passed away and i assumed it was due to stress so i thought nothing of it. about 2 days later one of my ottos died, so i tested water and everything was normal.. ammonia was 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5, and PH about 7.6. a few days later i noticed one of my dwarf rainbows have what looks like a rash with missing scales on one side.. he was also hiding and didn't eat. so after that night i came home and noticed not only was he dead, but a cory and another rainbow... also see another rainbow having that same rash but he isnt hiding and wants to eat. Ill post a pic of him as well as the rainbow that i noticed before that has already passed so you guys can see the rash. what do you guys think this is and what meds can i get to treat the tank. my tank has snails and shrimp.








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the only meds i have at the moment and what i plan on using after this waterchange is Melafix. thank you for the future advice.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

How much water have you changed since you started noticing problems? I don't see a specific problem. What I would do is change a lot of water, like 50% for 4-5 days in a row.

What are your gh/kh levels? kh holds your ph steady. Did you drip acclimate the fish you added? Do you normally drip acclimate?


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## vreugy (May 1, 2013)

I think I see mouth fungus on the fish in the second picture. The "rash" on the belly of the fish in the first picture looks septic to me. Good luck and keep up posted.


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## Arthur7 (Feb 22, 2013)

At the disk small white dashes appear. That looks like Hydra?


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Columnaris IMO

Fish Columnaris | Fungus & Saprolegnia | Treatment & Prevention

Name another disease that can kill this quickly?
Kannaplex and furan even if most fish are lost or look well.
Columnaris can last at least 30 days without a host so not treating is NOT an option if it is.


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## robo-snickers (Jun 12, 2012)

jrman83 said:


> How much water have you changed since you started noticing problems? I don't see a specific problem. What I would do is change a lot of water, like 50% for 4-5 days in a row.
> 
> What are your gh/kh levels? kh holds your ph steady. Did you drip acclimate the fish you added? Do you normally drip acclimate?


So far I only changed about 50% last night, I can do it again tonight when I get home from work. Is hard to say there isn’t a specific problem since my tank has been running for a good 4-5 months without a fatality and since just a week I already lost 5. I don’t know the gh/kh levels since I don’t have a test kit for those, but I did just check the ph and it is still at 7.6. I don’t drip acclimate, they were floated for about 30 mins with every 5 mins me slowly adding water. I never had problems doing this before and I thought it was just stress that killed the new cory… but after, my other fish started dying off im convinced it was something that cory had… also I will like to add the other new cory is still alive and they shared the same tank and bag when I bought them so I don’t know if his immune system is stronger or what.


vreugy said:


> I think I see mouth fungus on the fish in the second picture. The "rash" on the belly of the fish in the first picture looks septic to me. Good luck and keep up posted.


Can the fungus cause the rash? And all though it does look like the dwarf rainbow had some kind of fungus, the other rainbow that died did not…


Arthur7 said:


> At the disk small white dashes appear. That looks like Hydra?


I don’t know anything hydra, could they be killing the fish?


coralbandit said:


> Columnaris IMO
> 
> Fish Columnaris | Fungus & Saprolegnia | Treatment & Prevention
> 
> ...


I read about columnaris and it does seem likely since the rash seems to always be on the seems to be on the top side of the fish every time… only thing that gives me doubts is the rash doesn’t go fuzzy like cotton as its described to do. Does it always do that?
Also I added the rest of my melafix and added salt to the tank which I rarely, I will research a bot more on the meds suggested. Thanks everyone.


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## Arthur7 (Feb 22, 2013)

Hydra is a small freshwater polyp. It attaches itself to at
Leaves, but mostly on the discs. It has tentacles and stinging cells.
With live food it is sometimes introduced. Most fish it does not hurt. but if the plucking because it nesselt.
The proliferation is very strong (vegetatively). There are food competitors.
It does not look nice from when photographed.
Rule: Who Hydra, feeding live.

Vorbeugung und Behandlung - aquamax


Tranlating:

Clamped fins and apathetic behavior, lying motionless on the floor - signs of infection with F. Columnaris. Fish from such tanks should not be bought.

Prevention is better than cure - this rather hackneyed saying is completely true in fish diseases, in particular F. Columnaris.

Prevention should start with our buying behavior. Especially with the so popular livebearers, it is advisable to look exactly. Are only two or three animals in the sale Aquarium striking, no animal should be purchased from this pool. It is striking, if one or more animals secrete and show "clamped fins". Are already visible infested individual fish (white mouth, "affected by fungi" fin edges, frayed fins, white gray coating on the skin or even cloudy muscle), one should appeal to the dealer it and acquire animals from this stock under any circumstances. In the initial stage F. Columnaris is relatively easy even without medication manageable, but without spending restraint will simply never change the terrible conditions somewhat.

Unfortunately, it is also necessary to take care of water quality in pools dealers. It is more or less tried uncontrollably with severe to very severe saline additions to inhibit the bacteria in its propagation. This works reasonably well, because it is precisely F. Columnaris is not one of the halophilic bacteria. However, they are often replaced by other things being equal by others, similarly destructive acting bacteria, where the addition of saltautolinker.com autolinking image can not touch. If such amounts of saltautolinker.com autolinking image added that a noticeable stunting occurs, the electrical conductivity and thus the osmotic pressure u. U. increases dramatically. As already mentioned, most livebearers (Guppy, Platy, Molly Black, heavy carrier) tolerate both the salting, and reverting back to normal tap water without added salt surprisingly well, but it's still an unnecessary burden on the animals. Not to mention species that normally occur in nature only in a particular type of water body, where such adaptability is therefore non-existent. One should therefore simply ask and possibly check with a conductivity measurement, whether saline addition has been made in the sale aquarium, or not. If it is not to brackish water fish, you should not buy salt addition also. The usual slow reaction of about 30 minutes to an hour is sufficient in any case to even reasonably appropriate to adapt the fish from one extreme to normal salinity.

Not everything goes but at this infectious disease and its prevention at the expense of the specialized trade. Should the aquarium always more colorful, larger, yet cheap fish, the trading will of course respond. Mass production for little money always and everywhere in the world is only at the expense of quality and is connected with merciless cruelty. Who can sit for a reasonable amount for the small traders around the corner healthy, but slightly smaller and not as fully colored animals and prefer to buy cheap, great, screaming colorful fish from breaking full retail facilities, is not only guilty themselves, but ensures that never change this unacceptable situation.
Prevention succinctly

No fish from excessively occupied commercial equipment purchase.
No fish from aquariums buy, where animals can be seen with typical symptoms clamped fins, white mouth "fin rot" and muscle cloudy.
In no case fish should be bought from pools, where are already dead animals to see.
Be sure to ask if the addition of salt was carried out in the dealer's pool. If so, you should also refrain from buying.
If fish are already treated with medication, you should not buy also. Reputable dealers make on its own initiative such aquariums indicated and do not sell during a treatment.
For dealers who do not give willingly on the water conditions in the sale facility information, you should not buy.

Although it hardly likely to be some traders basin without these pathogens, so an introduction by F. Columnaris into the home aquarium is almost certainly inevitable, one can be completely reassured; it will not come in compliance with the above rules of conduct in ornamental fish buying the outbreak of a disease in the aquarium. If you are not sure, the recommendation as the Ichthyo, a quarantine tank and / or a UV-C lamp is also here to use as Ichthyo.


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## Matt68005 (Mar 3, 2012)

Its hard to say from that picture. Sometimes fish just get nasty parasites then succomb to bacterial infections.
When i put my sick fish in a hospital tank with ample warmth, salt, and Methylene Blue, plus feed Terramycin Antibiotic feed, they always perk back up.

It really does look like a mould infection from damage to their skin from some parasite, idk it could be columnaris, but the above treatment thankfully cures columnaris and a number of bacterial/mould and even some parasitic diseases.


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