Columnaris In Platys

[mbbowman]

Possible columnaris?

1. Water parameters. (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, PH, temp', Hardness etc)
Ammonia & Nitrite: none detected
Nitrate: 20ppm (our tap water has 10ppm or more...will be switching to RO water soon)
pH: 8.0
Hardness: our water is very hard, but I dont have an exact measurement.
Temp: 83-84, because I had been treating for ich and haven't gotten around to reducing the temperature. Normally I keep the water at 80.

2. A full description of the fishes symptoms.I am only noticing this on my platys. Some have had this white film-like layer over their scales since I got them. I thought it was just irridenscence. Now one platy has a more concentrated bit on the top of his nose, that's starting to look almost fuzzy. I am thinking columnaris?

So far everyone is still eating and swimming just fine. I keep hearing about this medicated, antibiotic fish food, but I feel like it's some big secret where one obtains such a thing - I can't find it anywhere! I live in WI, near the Twin Cities (MN). Poop is the normal pinkish color.

3. How often you do water changes and how much.
I normally do 5-10% a week, sometimes as long as 2 weeks in between changes. My next change will be tomorrow. Should I do a larger change? I also had planned on turning the heater down (since it's easier to access when I'm changing water) to drop the temp.

4. Any chemicals and treatments you add to the water.
None, but the tank just went through a malachite green/formalin treatment for ich a couple of weeks ago. Because of my loaches I only used half strength for twice as long. I also normally don't add salt, but during my last water change I did add 1tsp to the tank. During my ich treatment I was doing 50% water changes. I doubt there was any salt in the tank prior to the bit I just added.

5. What tank mates are in the tank.
3 mickey mouse platys (2f, 1m), 1 sunburst platy (m), 1 plumetail platy (f), 5 von rio tetras (sex unknown), 3 B. kubotai loaches (2.5in that I've had for almost a year, and two smaller juneniles; sex unknown), 1 rubbernose pleco (sex unknown). There is also a random molly male that I've had for over a year, left over from when I had mollies. He's supposed to go into my friend's tank, just haven't gotten around to transporting him. He's always been very healthy, but he's a dwarf (probably due to inbreeding). You'd think I'd be having issues with the molly since he's lived for over 8 months with hardly any salt in the water...but no, he's just fine. I realize he does need salt though, so eventually he'll be moved.

6. Tank size.
Tanks is 38 US gallons.

7. Finally Have you recently added any new fish?
The two smaller B. kubotai loaches were added 7 days ago. No signs of illness. They were pretty obnoxious for the first 20 or so hours after we added them, but after two days everything was back to normal. The loaches never went after the platys, but they did play the battle dance with my resident B. kubotai for the first few hours, presumably to establish dominance and territory. I know it added some stress to the platy's lives, but they got over it after a few hours, realizing the loaches were no threat. The loaches have absolutely no interest at all in the platys. The pleco changes the loaches out of his cave when he wants to sleep, and if a von rio tries to steal the loaches' shrimp pellet they'll dart at them. The only torn fins I ever get is between my platy males. The mickey mouse male is dominant and chases the sunburst male away from the girls...every once in a while I see a tear in one of his fins (usually tail...more recently, dorsal).

It just seems odd...all these fish (except the new loaches) were treated for a week with malachite green/formalin...you'd think nothing could have survived this.

The only other thing I can think of is our light. For over a year I had this tank with no light at all...just my house lights. I started having problems when we added a light. I know the light is too bright so I plan on getting different bulbs. I only have the light on for less than an hour a day (for the java ferm plant I have). Could my fish have some odd sunburn that's allowing other things like Columnaris to invade?

How should I treat this tank?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

a. Do you use dechlorinator at all? When you clean the filter out, how thoroughly do you clean it and do you clean it out in plain tap water or old tank water?
b. Yes you should be doing larger water changes on a more regular basis. At least 25-30% once a week is advised, however no more than 60% really. Also clean the substrate once a week and clean the filter when nesasary (usually once every 1-3weeks for most people)
c. It is most likely columnaris- you need a med that treats external bacterial and fungal infections, Pimafix is good as it treats these as well as internal bacterial infections.
d. Don't use salt on the tank- you have fish on which the salt will have a negative impact on their health, like the tetras, loaches and pleco. Platys can tolerate short salt baths, but it is not good to have salt in the tank in the long term with them.
Salt is benneficial for mollys, but if your molly has been going strong for 8months with no health problems whatsoever and no salt treatment then you don't really need to use it- i've had my black and yellow female molly and over 3 and a half years now with no health problems and i have never used salt on her . The water in my tank is relatively alkeline and i add special mineral/vitamin supliments to the water and this seems to work fine for her. Salt is more needed in molly tanks which have more acidic water or where the molly/s is showing obvious health problems related to a lack of salt in the tank (like repeated fungal infections or behavior like the Shimmies i.e. fish appears to be shaking/vibrating a lot etc).

More regular water changes and cleaning tank sessions will help prevent the columnaris coming back, also stop using things like salt in the tank will help lower the stress levels of the fish in general .

 

[mbbowman]

We don't have chlorine or chloramine (sp?) in our water, so I don't use dechlorinator. At all. Now that the rules concerning nitrate output have changed, our town will be building a new water treatment facility so eventually we will have water with no nitrate either, which will be SO nice. They're still not planning on adding chlorine or anything like that, so we've been told thus far. I live in the country, with lots of farms surrounding me on 3 sides of my home. I did recently buy stress coat for my boss' cichlid tank, but haven't used it in my tank. About a year ago I used to add Cycle to my tank after water changes, but then my fish didn't like it and some died, so I haven't used it sense.

Should I use MelaFix with the PimaFix, or just the Pimafix?

You know it's funny...I used to do larger water changes, and then a couple of people told me that I was changing too much water and that since I wasn't overstocked I shouldn't have to do so many changes. Now, apparently they were wrong! I dont mind doing the extra water changes, so I will start changing more. As soon as I sort out my aquarium light situation I'm hoping to get another plant or two...that should also help with my water conditions, right?

Thanks so much!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Are you sure there is no chlorine in the water? I thought they put it into all tap water suitable for drinking to prevent deseases spreading in the water . Or are you using non-drinking water for the tank?
More regular and larger water changes have more bennefets for the fish, from helping reduce parasite levels in the water, keeping better control on nitrate levels, to helping prevent ph crash in older tank set ups etc. Ph crash comes about from long term evaporation in tanks where water is evaporated leaving the minerals in the water, which build up over the years changing the ph of the tank suddenly which can be very stressful for the fish. Doing more regular water changes will help prevent this happening .

Melafix is more for treating external wounds- its a kinda weak med, but its good for treating things like small to medium degree finrot infections or preventing secondary deseases setting into injurys on fish. Pimafix is a stronger med, and is more designed for treating more serious infections/deseases like columnaris and can treat many types of deseases due to its anti internal and external bacterial and fungal desease fighting qualities. I think you should be fine just using the Pimafix- you can combine it with the Melafix if you want, but i don't think the melafix is as nesarsary as the pimafix in this case .
Making sure the oxygen content of the water is good during treatment is important, so if you have anything like a bubble stone/machine then that is good, or you can raise the filters in the tank so they cause a lot more surface agitation/bubbles etc. If you need to do any water changes during the treatment (which will also be benneficial for the fish), just make sure you replace any of the meds lost through the water changes by doing a simply calculation based on the amount of litres/gallons of water you take out .

 

[mbbowman]

Yes, I'm sure there's no chlorine in my water. Most people don't believe me, but then they've never lived in rural western WI ;-). Strange folk live here you know. I'm from NJ and NYC originally; I've only been out here 5 years, so I still find much of what people do - or don't do - out here a little odd. I did buy a test strip for chlorine/chloramine and it always shows up negative. If you think it would be beneficial I can steal my stress coat back from my boss and use that...

I do run a bubble wall and my filter causes quite a bit of current. I don't really have evaporation problems since the entire top of the tank is sealed. I have cats so.....yeah, no open top aquariums for me .

Thanks!

ETA: I ordered both medications, which should arrive next week.