Disinfect Tank After Columnaris Outbreak?

HI friends,
This is a continuation of my previous "sick betta" thread from yesterday.
I decided to start a new thread because my sweet Mushu died and I found his tankmate, a beautiful blue halfmoon betta dead this morning. Blue Boy had the white around his mouth. No other symptoms - except death. Mushu had what looked like fin rot which had accelerated at an alarming rate.
Both fish went down hill very quickly when I began to increase their temp from 78 to 82 in order to treat an ich outbreak. This makes me think it was Columnaris.

EDIT: Bettas were in a divided 20L with ten gallons each.

There is one CPD and 4 chilI rasboras and snails left in the tank. Should I euthanize all the fish and disinfect the tank?
How do I disinfect the tank? What do I do with the snails and shrimp that are in the tank- are they carriers? What about the plants? I am willing to do a scorched earth policy (sorry for the euphemism, but that what it feels like)
Thank you so much, this is a sad day indeed.
Cindy

 

HI Cindy

Columnaris is present in most aquarium water, and also lives on the skin of healthy fish, so there’s no point in disinfecting the tank because you’ll probably reintroduce it with your next fish. Like most diseases, columnaris only affects stressed fish so if you make sure the water stays good and temperature and pH etc stay within tolerance of the fish you should be fine.

 

I am sorry for your losses

I agree with the above poster. I personally would not euthanize the remaining fish. Do any show signs of illness? (the white 'fluff" near the mouth can be an indicator but not always since it can also be very quick) I had a similar outbreak a few months back, lost all 6 of my corys and 2 rasboras very quickly after I brought in 2 new fish (2 of the corys) who were most likely already infected. I suspected columnaris as well. I will say the remaining fish that were in the tank (5 others) are still alive today so I would really advise on not euthanizing them! I had tried saving my corys so I had been treating the entire tank. After the deaths stopped I added carbon back into my filter and did extra water changes but have not had any deaths since so I do not think you have to worry about your plants/ snails etc as mine have been thriving through it all.

That was just my personal experience though, hopefully someone with more actual knowledge of it can contribute to the comments to help!

 

Oh thank you! That puts my mind at ease. I think I am in the middle of the cascade - just lost one of my chilis. Will keep a watch on things but I won't do anything drastic (like buy new fish). I'll do some WCs and just let everything settle out.

My water parameters are 0/0/5 ph 7.6 so I don't understand why they would have been stressed.
Again, thank you.

I am sorry for your losses

I agree with the above poster. I personally would not euthanize the remaining fish. Do any show signs of illness? (the white 'fluff" near the mouth can be an indicator but not always since it can also be very quick) I had a similar outbreak a few months back, lost all 6 of my corys and 2 rasboras very quickly after I brought in 2 new fish (2 of the corys) who were most likely already infected. I suspected columnaris as well. I will say the remaining fish that were in the tank (5 others) are still alive today so I would really advise on not euthanizing them! I had tried saving my corys so I had been treating the entire tank. After the deaths stopped I added carbon back into my filter and did extra water changes but have not had any deaths since so I do not think you have to worry about your plants/ snails etc as mine have been thriving through it all.

That was just my personal experience though, hopefully someone with more actual knowledge of it can contribute to the comments to help!

I will say this: I will make sure to have my QT up and ready to go before I bring in any new fish! It must have come in on the CPD or the rasboras.

 

I will say this: I will make sure to have my QT up and ready to go before I bring in any new fish! It must have come in on the CPD or the rasboras.

this is exactly why/how I learned about having a QT. Now I QT everything but I think the two corys I bought right before Thanksgiving were weak/sick/stressed and they just started dropping like flies ugh. I love my LFS to death but around the holidays I think they overstock to accommodate business. I treated my tank with a combination of Kanaplex and Furan 2 and extra water changes. I honestly cannot say if either of those made a difference so I am hesitant to recommend using them but just wanted to let you know what I personally did. I was just pretty desperate and willing to do whatever I read online to try to save my fish but now I am more a believer of extra water changes helping over anything else. I hope your fish hang tight and make it through!

 

this is exactly why/how I learned about having a QT. Now I QT everything but I think the two corys I bought right before Thanksgiving were weak/sick/stressed and they just started dropping like flies ugh. I love my LFS to death but around the holidays I think they overstock to accommodate business. I treated my tank with a combination of Kanaplex and Furan 2 and extra water changes. I honestly cannot say if either of those made a difference so I am hesitant to recommend using them but just wanted to let you know what I personally did. I was just pretty desperate and willing to do whatever I read online to try to save my fish but now I am more a believer of extra water changes helping over anything else. I hope your fish hang tight and make it through!

I just got off Amazon and had ordered Kanaplex before I saw this post - I've read lots of good things about it ,and I think if I had had some on hand and used it right away, they might have been saved. My LFS doesn't carry it because "people buy it for themselves" so I was really up a creek.

 

I just got off Amazon and had ordered Kanaplex before I saw this post - I've read lots of good things about it ,and I think if I had had some on hand and used it right away, they might have been saved. My LFS doesn't carry it because "people buy it for themselves" so I was really up a creek.

That's where I got mine too! You will have to keep us posted