Lost 7 guppys so far to i beleive columnaris.

My tank was doing fine or so I thought then suddenly my guppies started dropping first 3 males then all 3 my females and then a male lyre tail.

The first two to go were new additions ignored quarantine and put them in an hour after I got them (last time I ever do that especially with wal-mart fish) in less than 12 hours of putting them in their tails began to dissolve leaving behind filaments only. Quarantined them immediately put melafix in in hopes of slowing or stopping whatever this is. No go within 24 hours the first was dead and the 2nd was showing signs of it 24 hours later it too was dead followed by the 3rd male. Followed by 2 of my females. At this point I did a good gravel cleaning and changed 50% of the water. With hopes of stopping the death of my last adult female and 3 remaining males and 2 fry. A few days go by no more deaths no more symptoms. Now tonight I come home from work to another death when I left for work there was no signs he would die or anything he was swimming around looking fine.

He was dead with white fur all over him fished him out flushed him.

Symptoms of the other deaths was fin splitting, tails dissolving, white patches where the scales flake up I guess the fish swells up in only that spot.

What is left in my 10 gallon tank is
2 guppy fry I believe female
2 guppy male siblings either father son or brothers from different generations/mothers not sure my breeder friend gave be 6 guppys and a few fry.
3 glow light tetra one is missing an eye and has a flattened side got it like that he swims a little funny but other wise is fine.
2 neon tetra
some where in there 2 baby mts not sure if alive the adult mts I could find has not moved in 3 days and is in a quarantine tank

I'm tempted to tear down the tank give it a sterilization and start over. I believe it has finished it's cycle my nitrates are 20 ppm and nitrites were .5 at last test hardness off the scale of the strips alkalinity off the chart ph above 8.4 comes from my tap like this except the nitrates. I am suspecting my test strips are not very accurate I have a liquid test kit on the way should arrive monday.


What I believe is killing my fish is columnaris. With the latest death I am not as sure anymore can fungus kill this fast?

What I have done is add aquarium salt and melafix. I have Furan-2 on the way.

My tank is setup with the following.
10g glass rectangle
florescent hood with 2 6500k cfl lights
fluval 106 canister filter with 12" pvc spray bar
aquarium gravel from walmart 10 lbs
bubble curtain
6 plastic plants
a golf ball of java moss

 

I also believe you're dealing with columnaris. Yes, it can kill that fast. It is highly contagious and quite often, you'll lose fish before they even show symptoms. Fin rot and fungus are two primary symptoms of the disease.

You have to stay right on top of it and be really aggressive. When I went through it, I immediately culled the two symptomatic fish, did a 50% water change, scrubbed down the tank walls and dosed the tank at half recommended dosage of aquarium salt. For me, that nipped it and it didn't claim any other fish and didn't come back. If you do not cull the fish and choose meds, chances are likely that you will lose more fish. Meds just don't seem to fight this well.

Good luck.

 

Without a proper test kit, it could very well be ammonia/nitrite poisoning as well. Added the salt/melafix, could give you all the symptoms your fish are having I would start doing daily partial water changes with some prime and fish protector immediately.

 

I notice you said you still have nitrite. If you're getting a nitrite reading, the tank is not cycled. My goldfish got ammonia poisoning when I accidentally crashed his cycle by overcleaning. I really thought he had a fungus at first. Besides clean water goes a long way to helping any sick fish feel better.

Also, the white fur you described around the dead fish may have been mold like you'll see surround decaying food particles. Good luck.

 

Ooo, I really hope you don't have columnaris- it's nasty. I may be partly do to the fact that it's summer, and although it's been chilly in Washington, I know is isn't in most places. Columnaris can often start because of a rapid temperature increase.

When I had it, I used Melafix 2. This stopped it from spreading, but I think I just got lucky here. The fish that had it died pretty quickly, except for my angel. After I was sure he was clean, I went out and bought Melafix and Melafix 2, which I gave him in a QT. I might note here that Melafix 2 will ruin your cycle, so you should save the bacteria colonies in your filter by putting them in a bucket, and get ready for some water changes. When my tank had it I also put in some aquarium salt, but I'm not sure how much of a difference that made. I did water changes every couple days, but should probably have done more. I may have just had a light case of columnaris. So anyway, when my angel had it in the QT, he lived with it for about 2 weeks, and every morning I expected to wake up and find him dead. Only, he wasn't dead. Finally I asked if I should dip him (see the second link) and was given instructions for a hydrogen peroxide bath. You may want to do this at some point, but shouldn't do it yet. I believe one member that had columnaris used a garlic bath, but I'm not sure how much success they had. I'll try to find you the thread. Of course, you could just follow LyndaB's advice, and try to stop it in it's tracks.

In the mean time, you can read up on these threads.

https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfi...lost-3-fish-in-4-days-2-more-look-bad.112857/
https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/super-sick-angel-should-i-dip-her.113591/
I think this one is the one that talks about the garlic bath

Good luck!

Nippybetta

 

well the remaining fish are not showing any symptoms they are eating and swimming fine. Though that was the story with the lyre tail male last night too.

Ill post more information monday when I receive and Furan-2 supposedly does well on columnaris and is bio filter safe. Ill continue the salt treatments in the mean time.

I also might stick my hob back on with some of the gravel in it rather than the fluval 106 (I put it on the 10 gallon to let the bio filter mature while I take my time setting up a 20L tank eventually the fluval will be on the 20L and the 10 will be back to hobing along I took the bio filter from the hob a aqua-tech 5-15 and put it in the bio filter basket on my fluval to seed it I believe it had just finished cycling when I did this but it might still have been cycling.)

 

OH GREAT GOODY after almost 2 weeks of no deaths I had one in the middle of my furan-2 treatment but this one was a little different I was greeted with a new symptom

The dead fish a beautiful male blue and white guppy had a little red hair sticking out his anus after an hour of him being in an examination cup the hair has extended to 1cm in legnth from searching online I believe it to be Camallanus :;madsmiley I visted the sticky already and emailed the guru am waiting for a reply ill probably get the levimasol HCL and use that after a 100% water change and gravel removal.

Any one have tips of what to use to sterilize my tanks and fluval 106 so I don't re infect any fish that survive this... Just bleach water or isopropyl alcohol or what.