I Need Help, Sick Weather Loach (Pictures!)

[Kim123]

Hi everyone, first of all I'd like to apologize because I don't know some proper terms, english is not my mother tongue.
I would really appreciate if someone would give my advice, my loach is letargic and has white "smears" on his back. The disease seems to also have attacked his gills because he's breathing is worse than it used to be.
Firstly, I thought it may be some sort of fungus (it looked like silky layer on his back and he was letargic, few times a day he would have a sudden outburst of energy, and started to jump on the surface like he was lacking oxygen), but then I've read about culminaris, "the saddleback disease", and those white "smears" after few days kind of started to form "a saddle" on his back. I bought Furanol plus 250 (http/www.garnelenbaron.at/bilder/produkte/gross/JBL-Furanol-Plus-250-20TDE-UK-TR-RO-nur-Export.png) and after 5 days (as it says in the instructions) I repeated the treatment because he still had white "smears", but definitely smaller and much much thinner.
He was getting slightly better but I'm not sure if it's ok to repeat the procedure the third time (since he's about 8yo and could be vunerable from a lot of medication). Maybe I was wrong because if this was culminaris, it would probably go away after 2 treatments. What do you think this desease could be? I am worried because today he's again started to breathe heavily, as he used to do before the treatment.
 
HERE ARE THE PICTURES, you can clearly see the phases of the disease, so if someone knows what disease this is, I would greatly appreciate your help!!! (last pic is after the last treatment) 

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Welcome to the site and your English is fine.
 
I think you are correct in your diagnosis. I do not know exactly what the active ingredient in the med you use is. But from what I could find, my best guess is it may not be as effective against this disease as they claim.
 
I have always used specific antibiotics to treat columnaris. Because secondary infections may be present I tend to use a broad spectrum antibiotic or a combination of two different ones.. I am reluctant to make suggestions for things which I have no idea may or may not be available to you there.
 
I dislike doing more than two full treatments of antibiotics in a row. What I can also tell you is some instances of columnaris are more stubborn than others. When I have found it necessary to do a second round of treatment, my practice has been to increase the recommended dosage by 25 - 50% depending on the severity of the symptoms.
 
Most bacteria, including columnaris, does not do well in cooler temperatures. According to Loaches Online for Weather Loach: "Temperature: 50- 77ºF (10 - 25ºC)" The more you can lower the temp in the tank, the more it may help. However, if there are are other fish in the tank, check how low they can go before you make any changes.

 

[Kim123]

Thank you for your help, it is hard to lower the temperature since it's very hot here

  but it is the only fish in the tank so the good thing is I don't have to isolate it during the treatment. Could you please tell me what antibiotics do you use and I will try to find them here in Croatia. Sadly, we don't have a wide range of antibiotics here, I was in the biggest pet store and Furanol plus 250 was the most expensive one that I could find, and it's supposed to be the strongest and the most effective one. That's why I wasn't sure if my diagnosis was right at the first place, because the "strongest" medicine did not work. 
It has been 2 days since the 2nd round of antibiotics was finished, I put activated carbon, took it out after 24 hours (I did everything it says in the instructions), and my fish was a little better but now I'm afraid to increase the dosage because I've already repeated the treatment twice any my fish is old. Maybe it would be better to wait few more days, but I am afraid it could die if I don't do something right now 

 

[TwoTankAmin]

As a broad spectrum- Furan-2 made by API (Aquarium Pharmaceuticals)- this is a mix of Nitrofurazone and Furazolidone.
 
I have also use the combination of Maracyn, which is Erythromycin, and MaracynTwo which is Minocycline.

 

[star4]

check your water for traces of ammonia, weather loach do not tollerate it and will produce extra slime coat giving a  similar appearance to columnaris. 

 

[Kim123]

Thank you very much, I will contact a vet/aquarist tomorrow and see do they know if there are any of these antibiotics available in our country.
As for ammonia, concentration of nitrates was slightly higher than reccomended but I had been changing about 30% of water every few days and it has been some time since that but symptoms are still present and the fish slightly responded to antibiotic so I guess nitrates were not the problem..