columnaris

[RuevenM at aol_com]

Hi Dan,

       That sure sounds like columnaris to me. There is a great little 
disease book put out by the Dutch, I believe, called the Color Guide To Fish 
Diseases, or something close to that, and it pictures how columnaris looks on 
many different species -- and it varies alot! It is my belief, that as far as 
bacteria infections go, Flexibacter (spelling?) columnaris is the biggee in 
the hobby today. I think it is the bug in the guppy, discus and angelfish 
plagues of recent years. I learned to deal with it by trying to treat 
cardinal tetras in a LFS I worked at. Cardinals always get columnaris when 
they come in. The fish gets either very thin or slightly bloated (maybe a 
related infection of something?), swims to itself, becomes listless, begins 
to pump its gills and breathe heavily, the fins will look slightly frayed, 
and a large whitish/grey patch or "saddle" will appear on or under the skin 
on the back somewhere. This patch grows. Mouth fungus and what look like 
blisters under the eyes are also common. In the angels and discus the 
bacteria looks like thick gray body slim on the sides of the fish and these 
species clamp their fins and shimmy. Small fish die within hours or a day.
      I have found that a drug with furanace (spelling?) in it works pretty 
good. I use Jungle's Pond Fungus Eliminator or another one called Furacyn. 
Both work. I double the dose, change 50-75% of the water daily and re-treat 
each day for 3 -5 days. If the fish already shows signs of the disease, 
except in angels and discus, it is usually finished, but the treatment seems 
to stop it before it gets started in the other fish. I usually remove the 
obviously sick ones before they die and treat the remaining healthy looking 
ones so that the healthy looking ones won't eat the dead ones -- although 
they usually don't feel like eating.
     Furanace seems ok with most plants. Java Fern does not like it though 
and I have heard Anubias does not either -- although mine do ok.
     I hope this helps. There is no science here, just trial and error 
observation.

Robert
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