Platys White Masses Fins, Mouths, And Eyes

[iceprizm]

I have 2 10gs and a 55g. A couple of days ago something killed all the fry in my 10g. The fry had white masses all over them most notably covering the eyes. This morning the same thing killed all my adult platy in my other 10g. they were fine the night before, in the morning i saw the same masses. I treated with maracyn but 3 hours later all the fish were dead. Now i am worried that my 55g might get hit next. the 2 10gs i used the same equipment to do wc: gravel vac, hoses, buckets, nets. I have since sterilized all everything i could think of.

1. Does anyone have any idea what wiped out my tanks the stats were ok?
ph 7.8
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 20
fish prior to death had white masses around mouth, on body, fins, and covering the eyes. fish would still eat but were lathargic.

2. Is it possible to pretreat a tank with maracyn or similiar to avoid problems? Dont seem to have much time between visible symptems and death.
Thanks in advance

 

[LauraFrog]

I live in Australia and I don't know what is in maracyn. What is the active ingredient? I wouldn't pretreat a whole tank with any medication. If it's antibiotics, it will kill your biological filter and that will kill your fish, even if they don't have this disease. I don't think using antibiotics when not necessary is ever a good idea. Their overuse has made them less effective.

This sounds to me like advanced columnaris. I hate it, I've had two epidemics and both times I lost almost all my fish. Usually it's caused by poor water quality or stress, so it's hard to know what would have caused it. Have you recently added a new fish or anything else to your tank that might have upset the fry? Changed their diet? Missed a dose of water dechlorinator?

Columnaris is often called cottonwool disease or mouth fungus but it's actually bacterial. The growths usually start from the mouth but sometimes spread to cover the whole face (eyes included). Saddleback lesions are also typical; that's when a patch of the cottony stuff appears on and to both sides of the dorsal (top) fin. Finrot is also common and takes the form of white lines or even fuzzy growths on the fins which rapidly shrink, causing the fish to have difficulty swimming. Some forms of columnaris take days to do anything serious but others can kill in less than 12 hours.

It's caused by flexibacter columnaris which responds to tetracycline. Tetracycline is usually pretty easy to get because most diseases of humans have mutated and no longer respond to it, so there's no point restricting it. The problem is that some strains of columnaris act so fast they kill the fish before the tetracycline has time to kill them.

As far as possible I wouldn't touch the 55 until the situation has settled down in both the smaller tanks. These bacteria live naturally on and in most fish and are only activated when the fish are stressed, but moving large populations of them around is definitely a bad idea. Watch the fish very closely. Any fish that behaves oddly or starts to get white growths, isolate it immediately and treat with tetracycline. Columnaris likes to be kept warm so dropping the temperature by a degree or two might help, but don't lower it so much that the fish are stressed out because this will make them more likely to catch it.

 

[LauraFrog]

Just saw another Wilder post - apparently columnaris responds to maracyn (1) so if you get any more fish with these symptoms isolate it and treat with maracyn.

 

[iceprizm]

MARCYN: Broad spectrum antibiotic treatment against gram positive bacterial and fungal diseases of fish.

Maracyn Freshwater
Antibiotic (Erythromycin) tablets are recommended for the treatment of body fungus (Columnaris), fin and tail rot, popeye, gill disease and secondary infections. Erythromycin is a broad-spectrum antibiotic which has been shown to be effective against a number of pathogenic bacteria associated with ornamental fish disease.

When used at the recommended dosage Maracyn maintains a therapeutic level of the drug within the aquarium. Maracyn does not color the water and will not interfere with the biological filter.

Maracyn is primarily effective against gram-positive pathogenic microorganisms. Symptoms of clamped fins, swollen eyes, heavy or rapid breathing, patchy coloration, change in swimming behavior or corner hiding can be signs of possible bacterial infection. All suspected bacterial infections should be treated immediately. Available in tablet or powder form. Tablets/powder should be dropped into the tank (not the filter). The tablets/powder dissolve and circulate through the water. Use of a hospital tank is recommended. Use one tablet/powder packet per 10 gallons of water and repeat every 24 hours for 5 days. After treatment Maracyn can be removed by water changes or fresh activated carbon.

Active Ingredients: Each tablet/powder packet contains 200 mg Erythromycin activity

Your description sounds right on. especially shrinking of fins............ I noticed this but forgot to meantion it.


Well both 10gs have been striped down and sterilized. have not yet decided what to do with them. Heat may have been an issue the ambient roon temp gets to around 85F 30C. So they did get kinda warm. the 55g has its own chiller so temps stay at 77F 25C. Prior to the outbreak i had done nothing different, nothing new or anything changed. It just hit me out of the blue.
The fish in the 55g are all new fish around 14 platy, 12 pygmy cory, 3 otos.

1. Should I lower the temp more or should 25C be ok?

So no on pretreating. Box said: "Maracyn does not color the water and will not interfere with the biological filter."
Just didnt know if anyone practices this or not.

I am just so worried about the 55g becoming infected and not having time to do anything.

 

[Saedcantas]

Hi Ice,

I'm really sorry to hear that the Maracyn didnt help much in those cases! Did you see my response to your other topic?

Lotte***

 

[LauraFrog]

I'll go and look for the other topic.
I wouldn't pretreat, no matter what antibiotics say they do interfere with filters. They might not kill all of the bacteria but they do kill some and weaken the others. The ammonia might not skyrocket but if it's at a stable 0 the last thing you want is to have it start bothering your fish when you've already got columnaris around.