Disease Killing Fish Fast, Please Help!

[Jenni T]

Hi,
This is on behalf of my boyfriend and we need help diagnosing what's going on with our fish, we have an idea what the disease is, but I won't say as I want to see everyones opinion first.

The tank is 60/70 litres
Ph is 8
Ammonia is 0
nitrite is 0
nitrate tested on friday is 10
kH: 7
tank temp: 23 C

So far we have lost 2 tetras that appeared to starve to death, but we're not sure if this was the same disease as they didn't have any of the other symptons.

Dan bought a pare of fighters, and 6 days after one morning the male had a white patch on his nose, then we came home to find the him acting odd, sitting at the top of the tank and acting lethargic and in a matter of hours his mouth was swollen, got in increasing amount of white on it and around it, and acted increasingly ill until by the evening he had past away.
The next day we came home to find the female acting the same despite having no symptoms the day before, she also died within a matter of hours with exactly the same symptoms. We have a couple of pictures of her.
We now have a peppered cory with a white patch over his back and on his second, small dorsal fin, he seems to be acting ok apart from spending a bit more time at the top then usual.

15-20 litres water change twice a month.

Use Api stress coat to dechlorinate and treated tank with tetra med general tonic after losing the male.

5 peppered corys, 6 black neons, 5 oto catfish.

Tank had run for 2 weeks before corys and neons were added, 2 weeks later we added the oto's and fighters.
(The filter was taken from a mature tank that had been running for 2 years beforehand.) Did water tests before adding new fish each time.

This is the female:

 

[snazy]

Sounds like columnaris to me.

 

[KCB]

Reading about your symptoms online, I agree with snazy. You say you think you know what it is, do these opinions line up with yours?

 

[Jenni T]

Thanks for your replies, and yes thats exactly what I was thinking it was.
Any suggestions for treatment? And what are the likley causes of it?
We've just bought some melafix to treat the tank with now as I've seen its recommended for the disease.
thanks for your help

 

[snazy]

Main reasons for columnaris is water quality stress. Columnaris is caused by bacteria that lives in every tank but affects the fish in stress like conditions. I know you posted ammonia and nitrIte as 0s but certainly in such a new tank they were subjected to these toxins and diseases are inevitable consequence in most cases like this. If you are in the US, get Seachem Kanaplex(kanamycin) and Furan 2 and treat with both simultaneously. It seems you've got the fast killing strain.

 

[Jenni T]

Fair enough, like I said the tank was new but the filter had well established bacteria as it had been in another tank for 2 years. It seemed odd that none of the other fish (the corys and the tetras) showed any illness until the fighters were introduced, and that the fighters were ill first.
We've already had the shop admit that the they only had them for 24 hours rather then the usual 72 before selling them to us.
I'm in the UK.
And yes it appears we've been very unluckly, I'm fearing we may lose all the fish.
thanks,

 

[Jam Jam]

I had a similar thing and just got over it !
Treated with two different waterlife products back to back with water change in between and all is well now thank god.
I hope you get it sorted mate.

 

[Jenni T]

I had a similar thing and just got over it !
Treated with two different waterlife products back to back with water change in between and all is well now thank god.
I hope you get it sorted mate.

Thankyou, glad yours got sorted! It's horrible watching them decline so quickly.

 

[KCB]

We've already had the shop admit that the they only had them for 24 hours rather then the usual 72 before selling them to us.

Maybe this was the cause? If the LFS only had them for 24hrs then they could still have been stressed and may have contracted columnaris before you purchased them.

Good luck with your treatment, I hope it's successful!

 

[garethp]

I'm treating for suspected columnaris at the moment (fish have fluffy mouths).

My tank is recently cycled and shows 0's for Ammonia and Nitrite. I think the fish got really stressed being netted in the LFS. I went in on the weekend and had the 'Saturday boy' chasing them round with a net for ages. Won't be making that mistake again.

To treat, I am using a combination (dosing at the same time) of Myxazin by Waterlife for the bacterial infection, and PimaFix by API for any secondary fungal infection.The PimaFix also has anti-bacterial properties so a two pronged attack.

Seems to be clearing up - gone from full on fluffy mouth with a bit hanging off on Friday to a tiny white mark this morning. Tonight is the last dose of Myxazin and have a couple days left of Pimafix, so looking good.