What's killing my fish??

Ammonia nitrite nitrate all zero. Ph 6.8.

90g Walstad tank, heavily planted. Had 90+ fish before this last outbreak.

Bettas are just randomly dying, they are fine then within 24 hours they are belly up. Their stomach and under the gills seem to be a bit discolored

I believe I had columnaris a few weeks back but I thought I had beat it. The only thing that died was the Cardinals and the rainbows. The pictures of the rainbows minus the one in the net was from a few weeks ago.

Been about two weeks since that outbreak. Now I'm losing a fish or two a day. It's been mostly the Bettas, but also lost 2 emperor tetras. Now the rainbows are showing that off colored patches again(fish in net).

Is this columnaris that just keeps coming back? If it is, how do I treat a heavily planted tank with inverts.

P.S. My waster water goes directly to a treatment plant, there is no risk of local area infection by flushing.

 

I agree with your diagnosis, Columnaris aka Saddleback.
Something has apparently broken down your fish's immune system.
I don't recommend antibiotics anymore. Using them would likely put a big dent in your benificial bacteria & they rarely cure.
A big 50% water change would be a good first move. You might try Microbe Lift Artemiss. Plenty of good online reviews.
Be a good idea to remove all obviously infected fish.
Hope things get better soon.

 

I agree with your diagnosis, Columnaris aka Saddleback.
Something has apparently broken down your fish's immune system.
I don't recommend antibiotics anymore. Using them would likely put a big dent in your benificial bacteria & they rarely cure.
A big 50% water change would be a good first move. You might try Microbe Lift Artemiss. Plenty of good online reviews.
Be a good idea to remove all obviously infected fish.
Hope things get better soon.

I may have a dead Betta in my hardscape/plants how import is it that I get it out? Cause only way would be ripping up a lot of my plants to do it

 

All dead fish must be removed immediately

 

I may have a dead Betta in my hardscape/plants how import is it that I get it out? Cause only way would be ripping up a lot of my plants to do it

In case of diseases it is quite important.

Mycobacteria could be a plausible cause as well (looking at the symptoms).

So be careful with your hands in the tank (no wounds and scratches)

 

This thread has brought back some awful memories. I've had to deal with mycobacteria in the past. In this case it might be more likely to be columnaris. I found that myco didn't affect most of my softwater fish such as tetras. Although there are many strains of mycobacterium so it's difficult to generalise.