Columnaris!

[davidnso]

Ah! i think my small female betta caught columnaris from the male! I'm not sure, it might be ich, but she has a white spot forming near her mouth...AND, even after I did the complete water change, the water seems to have like...PULP floating EVERYWHERE; like a bunch of...cotton floating everywhere. its not noticeably in the full tank, but you can see it clearly when u get a sample of water in a cup. its the same stuff i saw when my male betta was getting sick, and i dunno im assuming its the same stuff that got both my bettas sick.

when i did the full water change I:

vacuumed the gravel
decreased the temperature to ~76F(to slow the bacteria growth?)
added salt to the aquarium

did i miss something here? why are my fish getting sick in that tank =(

 

[davidnso]

the white pulp stuff looks something like the cotton stuff growing on this betta(just looked for a pic on the web to try to describe what im seeing), except that its floating in the water, and its sticking on the the cup of water sample i take out of the tank. and that stuff isn't growing on my bettas...but will it? i thought my tank setup was just fine =/

 

[Jaded12]

If you put your female in the tank you sick male was in without properly cleaning it out, or if you used any of the same equipment on both of them (i.e. net etc.) then she probably does have colmunaris, that stuff spreads like wild fire. Add 1/2 tsp/gallon of aquarium salt to her tank and treat her with maracyn 1 and 2.

 

[RandomWiktor]

In addition to the salting, meds, and decreased temp, you'll want to run an aerator in the tank, and since it is a female, the bubbler can be on pretty strong. Columnaris is a gram negative and hates oxygenation, plus it will reduce the stress on the gills from the medications. And if the fish is in a small bowl (ie. 1g), I personally think cleaning should be every three days while sick, even if it means interrupting the 5 day cycle of the meds; just pick up again and do two treatments of three doses instead of one treatment of five doses.

 

[girl4God81]

You know, that picture is pretty much exactly how my little boy looked before he died earlier this week. And now that i think of it, I think my other little boy may be getting it too now! I don't have him in the same tank, unless maybe my fish had been in there a long time ago, don't remember. But last night I noticed it looked like that white stuff was coming out of his gills and was stuck to the glass, it floated off eventually but there was a little more in the water. It was AFTER I did a 50% water change in a 2.5 gallon...weird.

I added salt, and temp is at 73..

that's another question, he has a heater but it never seems to go above 73 and it doesn't have anything to adjust the temp, nor have I ever seen one for a tank that small that is adjustable..I normally would keep my bettas warmer but while treating him with copper safe and maracyn, is it ok to have it down that low?

So tonight, I'll change water out again, run an aerator (whats the best thing to get for a 2.5 gal?), add little more salt, maracyn I (and II?)..anything else??