20 Gallon Tank Tips for getting rid of columnaris?

[ahouseofscales]

Hi! I need some help getting columnaris out of my tank. This started around a month ago when I got some new platies and they were unfortunately already infected with columnaris. It spread to the rest of my platies and I treated twice with Furan 2 and Kanaplex, but sadly it didn't help. Now all I have left is my betta who somehow managed to avoid being infected. Even though the hosts are gone the bacteria has stuck around in my tank. It sticks to the glass, the substrate, my filter, and the driftwood I have in my tank. I recently took everything out except my filter media and cleaned with hydrogen peroxide. This helped a little bit but it is still present. Any tips on how I can get rid of it for good?

 

[JoeV2004]

dry out the tank and everything in it in the sun and make sure it is entirely dry

 

[ahouseofscales]

dry out the tank and everything in it in the sun and make sure it is entirely dry

I would but unfortunately it's winter where I live and I'm at college. I don't really have a good place to lay things out to dry, or a place to keep my betta in the meantime.

 

[Dedife]

I’m curious...how do you know the bacteria is still in your tank?

 

[JoeV2004]

I would but unfortunately it's winter where I live and I'm at college. I don't really have a good place to lay things out to dry, or a place to keep my betta in the meantime.

keep your water parameters stable and minimize stress on your betta. columnaris is actually very common. as long as you keep your bettas immune system up, you should be ok. sanitizing and drying the tank is still the best option

 

[JoeV2004]

I’m curious...how do you know the bacteria is still in your tank?

you would need a microbiologist to culture and grow the bacteria. and have the bacteria react with specific chemicals to see what kind of bacteria it is

 

[Redshark1]

Columnaris is a common bacteria wherever there is fresh water.

I believe it is impossible to remove it from the environment including the aquarium.

In addition it has a resting stage when it is resistant to dessication, chemicals etc. allowing it to recolonise when living conditions return to normal.

Normally, fish may carry it living on their bodies but it does not harm the fish due to the fishes immune system.

The problem is that fish farming has given rise to virulent strains of Columnaris that do not occur in the wild and are able to attack the fish and overcome their defences.

Killing the host is not an advantage to the bacterium in the wild as it may not find another host. In the fish farm things are very different with high densities present.

Resistance to medications is another issue promoted by fish farm husbandry.

I battled the Columnaris that affected my new Neon Tetras by optimising every factor that I believe affects the fishes health in the hope that the unstressed fish would fight it off with their immune systems.

These included attending carefully to stocking level, temperature, oxygenation, ammonia, nitrate, hardness, pH, current, plant cover, bullying and intimidation by co-habitants, feeding etc.

After 18 months I had (and still have 3 years later) a healthy shoal of 20 Neons but I did lose half of them before this point including many losses shortly after purchase.

If I were you ahouseofscales I would approach fishkeeping in this way. Optimise don't compromise. Getting healthy stock cannot always be guaranteed.




Edit: I think I just spotted a baby Yellow Bristlenose in the centre of my picture!

 

[DoubleDutch]

Columnaris is a common bacteria wherever there is fresh water.

I believe it is impossible to remove it from the environment including the aquarium.

In addition it has a resting stage when it is resistant to dessication, chemicals etc. allowing it to recolonise when living conditions return to normal.

Normally, fish may carry it living on their bodies but it does not harm the fish due to the fishes immune system.

The problem is that fish farming has given rise to virulent strains of Columnaris that do not occur in the wild and are able to attack the fish and overcome their defences.

Killing the host is not an advantage to the bacterium in the wild as it may not find another host. In the fish farm things are very different with high densities present.

Resistance to medications is another issue promoted by fish farm husbandry.

I battled the Columnaris that affected my new Neon Tetras by optimising every factor that I believe affects the fishes health in the hope that the unstressed fish would fight it off with their immune systems.

These included attending carefully to stocking level, temperature, oxygenation, ammonia, nitrate, hardness, pH, current, plant cover, bullying and intimidation by co-habitants, feeding etc.

After 18 months I had (and still have 3 years later) a healthy shoal of 20 Neons but I did lose half of them before this point including many losses shortly after purchase.

If I were you ahouseofscales I would approach fishkeeping in this way. Optimise don't compromise. Getting healthy stock cannot always be guaranteed.




Edit: I think I just spotted a baby Bristlenose in the centre of my picture!

Applause Steve !!!

Another thing I like to add.
One should realise that treating another disease might mess up the balance in a tank giving wrong bacteria like Columnaris there chance.

 

[Redshark1]

Good point Aad DoubleDutch .

In 40 years of fishkeeping I only used meds for whitespot and that was 25 years ago.

I am not a lover of medications and I generally believe in supporting the immune system as much as possible.

Optimise not compromise.

I do not expect the solution to my aquarium problems to be purchased in a bottle.

It is also not my way to treat with meds "in case".

I won't even feed my plants and they still grow like weeds (well they are weeds I guess - easy ones!).

I do dechlorinate with Prime however as I am convinced that it is a good thing to do.

But this is only because the water company ruins my perfect soft peat-filtered brown-tinted moorland water with chemicals to clarify it and disinfect it.

So I am regrettably NOT yet additive free!