Fish dying rapidly. Columnaris?

[comfycat]

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 75g
How long has the tank been running? 1.5 years
Does it have a filter? Two Aquaclear 110 and a canister 207
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? Usually 78 but currently set to 74 in case of columnaris
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) 25 tetras (mix of cardinals and green neon), 20 chili rasboras, 4 least rasboras, 5 sterbai corys, 10 kuhli loaches, 8 amano shrimp, 1 rabbit snail, some little ramshorns

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Every 2-4 weeks
How much of the water do you change? 25%
What do you use to treat your water? Prime
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Just the water

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? API liquid test kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0 or 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 40
pH: 7.5 (I used a calibrated pH meter)

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Every other day
How much do you feed your fish? A few pinches?
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Flakes and small pellets, forget the name
Do you feed frozen? Blood worms
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? No

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? Loaches, least, and half the chili rasboras are new, added a week ago
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? Within two days
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Dead within 24 hours with few symptoms, increased respiration effort near the surface then soon dead
Have you started any treatment for the illness? No
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Some of my original fish are dying quickly too. 3 corys, 10 rasboras, 1 least rasbora, 5 loaches have died

They just die so quickly. Could this be columnaris or something else? I've been doing daily/every other day 25% water changes. pictures are of some fish that soon died.

I actually took four of the fish that were recently dead or dying to a local veterinary diagnostic lab so I might end up with a diagnosis, but wondering if I should do something in the meantime?

What can I do that's shrimp/snail safe (I'll never be able to catch them and put them somewhere else), is it okay to treat a big planted tank?

 

[Fishfur]

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 75g
How long has the tank been running? 1.5 years
Does it have a filter? Two Aquaclear 110 and a canister 207
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? Usually 78 but currently set to 74 in case of columnaris
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) 25 tetras (mix of cardinals and green neon), 20 chili rasboras, 4 least rasboras, 5 sterbai corys, 10 kuhli loaches, 8 amano shrimp, 1 rabbit snail, some little ramshorns

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Every 2-4 weeks
How much of the water do you change? 25%
What do you use to treat your water? Prime
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Just the water

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? API liquid test kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0 or 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 40
pH: 7.5 (I used a calibrated pH meter)

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Every other day
How much do you feed your fish? A few pinches?
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Flakes and small pellets, forget the name
Do you feed frozen? Blood worms
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? No

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? Loaches, least, and half the chili rasboras are new, added a week ago
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? Within two days
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Dead within 24 hours with few symptoms, increased respiration effort near the surface then soon dead
Have you started any treatment for the illness? No
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Some of my original fish are dying quickly too. 3 corys, 10 rasboras, 1 least rasbora, 5 loaches have died

They just die so quickly. Could this be columnaris or something else? I've been doing daily/every other day 25% water changes. pictures are of some fish that soon died.

I actually took four of the fish that were recently dead or dying to a local veterinary diagnostic lab so I might end up with a diagnosis, but wondering if I should do something in the meantime?

What can I do that's shrimp/snail safe (I'll never be able to catch them and put them somewhere else), is it okay to treat a big planted tank?

Did you QT the new fish before adding them? If not, this is a harsh way to learn what a lack of QT can lead to.

It would be very interesting to learn if the lab is able to find & culture a pathogen but it won’t happen quickly enough to inform a choice of antibiotics - assuming the pathogen is bacterial.

It could be one of the virulent strains of columnaris or possibly some other pathogen but whatever it is, there isn’t much you can do at this point but hope it runs its course and that not all the fish succumb.

I would do several large water changes if only in hope of reducing bacterial counts to some degree.

Doing changes of only 25% once or twice a month really isn’t enough especially with a fairly large number of fish.

 

[A201]

"Oodinium" is a quick killer as well.
If you can, shine a flashlight on the fish. If you can see a yellow or gold sandy looking sheen on the bodies, Its Velvet aka Oodinium.

 

[comfycat]

Did you QT the new fish before adding them? If not, this is a harsh way to learn what a lack of QT can lead to

I'd gotten away with not doing QT on most of the other fish and figured it'd be fine. Won't make that mistake again.

I would do several large water changes if only in hope of reducing bacterial counts to some degree

I'll do that tonight and hope it helps. Would you treat with any medications at this point?

If you can, shine a flashlight on the fish. If you can see a yellow or gold sandy looking sheen on the bodies, Its Velvet aka Oodinium.

I'll be sure to try this tonight and see if I can see a sheen

Thank you both for the responses, it's super helpful.

 

[A201]

I believe that the majority of fishkeepers don't regularly quarantine new fish, sadly that includes me.

It's not good to blindly medicate. Doing so can cause more harm than good.

 

[comfycat]

I do not see a sheen on the fish, really the only lesions I see are very red gills.

At this point all the loaches seem to be dying, 5 have died today. Well, one had an increased respiratory rate and effort and looked to be suffering so I euthanized it. Not sure if this means they were carrying disease or if they were just the most sensitive to it.

I believe that the majority of fishkeepers don't regularly quarantine new fish, sadly that includes me.

It's not good to blindly medicate. Doing so can cause more harm than good.

That makes sense. I will wait and see how everyone remaining in the tank does, and what the lab says (I hope they're able to find some answers).

I hope shrimp aren't affected by whatever's going on because the amanos sometimes get to the fish before I can remove the bodies.

I never quarantined before but I certainly will in the future.

(But knowing that I'm not the only one not routinely quarantining does make me feel better about this disaster, thank you)

 

[comfycat]

Most of the remaining chili rasboras have developed symptoms:

They have pale patches, and one that has those pale areas on his tail also has been occasionally swimming erratically and holding his tail down. Some are also much more pale than normal in addition to having the pale patches. It's hard to get perfect photos but hopefully these help.

I haven't heard from the lab yet, but I'm nervous about not doing any sort of treatment. I'm wondering if I do *something* if I can save some of these fish. Either by treating the tank or moving the chilis to a hospital/quarantine tank. I'd just hate to lose the remaining 9 chilis (I started with about 25 )

Since my last post, the only changes I've made to the tank are lowering the temp from 78 down to 74, and to try and do more water changes

 

[A201]

White patches are usually a good indicator of a bacteral infection
If you choose to dose an antibiotic, be a good idea to medicate in a separate hospital tank.

Using antibiotics in the primary tank would likely destroy the benificial bacteria, causing a big ammonia spike.

 

[comfycat]

White patches are usually a good indicator of a bacteral infection
If you choose to dose an antibiotic, be a good idea to medicate in a separate hospital tank.

Using antibiotics in the primary tank would likely destroy the benificial bacteria, causing a big ammonia spike.

Thank you. Will I need to worry about the fish becoming sick again when reintroduced to the tank?

 

[A201]

The Rasporas health was likely weakened somehow, making them susceptible to disease.

If they totally recuperate, re-infection is unlikely.

Are the Rasporas the only species affected?

 

[comfycat]

The Rasporas health was likely weakened somehow, making them susceptible to disease.

If they totally recuperate, re-infection is unlikely.

Are the Rasporas the only species affected?

It's hard for me to see the cardinal/green neon tetras since they're more shy, but several of them have died so I assume they've been impacted. 3 of my 5 corys have died as well. I was considering medicating all the fish with a course of Kanaplex (since I'm most concerned for columnaris) while awaiting the pathology results.

 

[A201]

That sounds like a good idea for the Tetras and Catfish, but not so good for the Loaches. They don't handle meds very well.

 

[comfycat]

That sounds like a good idea for the Tetras and Catfish, but not so good for the Loaches. They don't handle meds very well.

That's very good to know. I'm actually not sure if any of them are still alive to medicate anyway, unfortunately. Is there a typical protocol to medicate them? I'm considering getting more once the tank is stable again, but I'd of course quarantine them in the future. But I've heard they often have diseases

 

[A201]

If they are still eating, the best way to administer antibiotics is through medicated food. Those are easily found online.

Other than that, just follow directions on the bottle.