Columnaris

[JasonU]

Yesterday I noticed what looked like patch of white cotton wool growing on the side of my betta as well as a smaller white patch on the base of his tail fin. I thought it was a fungal infection so I gave him a dose of interpet anti fungus medication.

Looks like I was wrong, I think it is columnaris. I had never heard of this before yesterday.

Today though he has started sitting on the bottom of the tank and has lost his appetite. The white cotton woll does not look as bad though. The loss of appetite is really concerning me. In december / january this year the wee guy had an internal infection, at one stage you could literally see all the way through him. He then lost his top fin and a big chunk of his tail fin. At one stage he had to sit in my hand while I fed him. Every time I look at him now I still feel lucky for him making through that time.

That time just as this time I got advice from Wilder, I dont think I can thank him enough for his advice.

I have followed his advice again this time. I am running black carbon to take the Interpet medicine out, done a major water change and clean up of the tank. Tomorrow as soon as I can get hold of pimafix I will add it with myxacin. I have lowered the temperature to 24c or 75F. I also added salt to his water.

I know very little about columnaris, only what I have read up on it on the net in the last 24 hours.

The articles that I have read said that it is caused by dirty water and / or stress. I thought that his water was clean enough to drink, I definately dont think that he has been stressed. The only time he shows of stress is if his food is a couple of minutes late.

At the moment I am just hoping he makes it through the night so that I can start giving him pimafix in the morning. None of the local fish shops in Edinburgh had any, one did but it was over a year past its sell by date. I should probably not joke about this but I am tempted to break into a fish shop in order to get hold of some.

Any advice that anyone can give would be very greatfully recieved.

 

[LauraFrog]

Columnaris is a nightmare. It's caused by bacteria and there are several different strains of it that produce different symptoms. The least severe is the one that produces the saddleback lesion - huge white patch just in front of the dorsal fin. Worst case I've ever seen had eaten away half the betta's back but he was still alive and he did recover when treated with antibiotics (although there was horrific scarring). So that one rarely kills. Then you've got the mouth-and-tail-rot. That one appears as white lines on the fins (usuallly caudal and pectoral) that shrink away towards the body, erasing the fins as they go. At the same time you get a white patch on the mouth that slowly eats away at it and makes it look fuzzy. Almost exclusively caused by stress, fatal in 48-72 hours if untreated. Seems to be similar in virulence to the one that shows up as white fluff wherever it pleases, which sounds like it's what you've got. The worst one as far as I know appears very suddenly as yellowish-white fuzzy slime all over the body, accompanied by white tips on the fins. Fatal in 18 hours. That one is horrendous, I had it last year and lost about half to 3/4 of my breeding stock.

What's the tank temp? Jury' still out on whether you should go up or down. TBH it doesn't make much difference either way when you've got the really foul strain - I was up it with tetracycline within an hour of symptoms appearing and I still didn't manage to save a single fish that got exposed. I ended up euthanising every fish that had been in contact with it because I knew what was coming and I couldn't stand to watch. The less foul strains (like the one you have) can usually be knocked off with myxazin. Not as reliable as antibiotics but if you can't get em, you can't get em.

Wilder is awesome totally agree with you there.

 

[JasonU]

I have just had a look at him and the white cotton wool appears to have disappeared almost entirely.

He is still hovering at the bottom of the tank though, more worrying he is not doing his begging for food routine. I thought a few hours ago that it had gone down a bit but it does look like it is close to disappearing. I am hope that this means that there is a light at the end of the tunnel at that it is not a train in this instance.

I am hoping the disappearence of the white cotton wool is a good sign.

When he was ill over december and january there was a few tmes that I thought we had lost him, his nickname is Lazarus. I am hoping that he does it agian this time, he is definately a fighter.

I put the tank down to 24c.

 

[indigoj]

I've just had a nasty columnaris hit - lost an oscar and a clarias catfish despite treating with myxazin and big water changes.

One Oscar that survived then displayed symptoms you now describe - sitting at the bottom, not eating and at one point was upside down! With advice from the Oscar Clubbers I treated with interpet anti internal bacteria meds (he was removed to an isolation tank) and he is now back to his old self - so that could be something to consider here?

You probably still need to treat the initial columnaris first though.

 

[keenonfish]

Columnaris is a nightmare. It's caused by bacteria and there are several different strains of it that produce different symptoms. The least severe is the one that produces the saddleback lesion - huge white patch just in front of the dorsal fin. Worst case I've ever seen had eaten away half the betta's back but he was still alive and he did recover when treated with antibiotics (although there was horrific scarring). So that one rarely kills.

Hang on a minute! I had fish with saddleback a couple years ago and it killed in less than 48hrs! These were new additions with no symptoms on purchase but by the time I noticed it was too late! Then my platies got the tail fluff and rot from them and I successfully treated. I guess they were a lot healthier than the new fish so stood a better chance.

I am sure Wilder will help if you post the relevant info etc...

 

[liz2]

I had never heard of this until about 6 weeks ago I lost 4 or 5 bettas in the space of a week. All exactly the same symptoms and gone down hill in 48 hours and died! I threw away my nets and am now paranoid about cross infecting anything!

 

[JasonU]

I think I should have bought a lottery ticket today, my luck is definately in.

My betta, technically he is my nieces, is looking alot better than yesterday. The white cotton wool patches have pretty much disappeared and he is swimming about again. I am going to try feeding him shortly, guess I will see if he has recovered his appetite. I cannot believe the difference between him now and yesterday.

Big thanks to everyone who gave me advice on this forum and the tropical emergencies section.

 

[LauraFrog]

Sounds good! Got my fingers crossed.

Urgh, saddleback killing in 48 hours I have never seen but I would definitely believe. Columnaris is horrible...

 

[JasonU]

Sounds good! Got my fingers crossed.

Urgh, saddleback killing in 48 hours I have never seen but I would definitely believe. Columnaris is horrible...

Thanks for that.

I noticed this morning that he has a new small patch of the white cotton wool type thing but you really have to look hard to see the big patch that was there a couple of days ago.

His appetite is back and he is swimming about as normal.

I am hoping that he is through the worst of it.