Mouth Fungus Hits Again

[wayneski100]

I love looking after my fish but do get upset when disease strikes...

We have had 2 bouts of mouth fungus in my tank recently, we treated the first outbreak 3 weeks ago and hoped it wouldnot happen again. However, it has come back to haunt us, is there any general points that would be helpful to avoid this in the future?

The info...
75 litre tank (5 harlequins - 1 ill, 4 femal platies, 2 peppered cory, a julli cory and 2 mini sucker mouth catfish)
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 10
ph - 7.2
Last new fish added 1 week ago (the harlequins and julli cory)

 

[WILDER]

Columnaris can ben fetched on by stressed fish, bad water quality, unstable temp.
This is a good article on columnaris.
http/article.discusnews.com/cat-02/columnaries.shtml

 

[wayneski100]

ive just looked at the article and was somewhat helpful

I consider my water qualiy good as you can see from my stats (it has been very stable for a long while now, bearing in mind that my tank is 3 months old).

The temperature is a constant 25 C, so no variable there.

I think it is obviously down to stress... but what can be done? I follow all the guidelines for adding new fish (probably being more catious than needed), I add stresscoat too and don't do anything silly that might stress them out too much - like constantly hounding them for the perfect photo...
Is there anything else that can be done?

 

[WILDER]

Water changes and gravel vacs once a week.
Don;t overstock a tank.
Its best to issolate new fish for up to 4 to 6 weeks.

 

[wayneski100]

When you say issolate the fish for 4-6 weeks does that mean a quarantine tank?
I'm only asking because I don't have one. I obviously would like a second tank but financial/space restrictions do not allow this.
My I also add that you, Wilder are very quick at responding, thanks, not only that but the immediate link to a superb article too, immpressive.

 

[WILDER]

Yes quarantine tank.
Ok if you can't afford a q tank every time you add new fish you are taking a risk.