Hi, I've had a bit of a problem identifying what is wrong with some of my fish since returning from holiday to discover that the girl from the local pet shop who I paid to do water changes/cleaning did such a bad job that one of my filters had stopped due to clogging and the tank was green despite a UV filter being used.

Anyways, I'll describe what is happening, what I've done so far and would like to know what you think. Firstly, I do 20% water changes twice a week so water parameters are now good. The water also tested as really soft and acidic 3 weeks ago but is now pH 6.8-7 with a water hardness of 4 which is hopefully still slowly rising due to an oyster shell bag in the filter.

The fish which are having probs are:

Danios - one can't keep upright while swimming about and one dead this morning.

Quite a few fish - Danios, rasboras, platies, black neons seem to have a greyish film over their bodies and are a bit jittery.

Neons - have a few white bubbly growths on either their fins or mouth.

Blackline flying fox - a grey mouldy looking patch on his side.

A few platies sucking near surface with top fin clamped and tail facing down.

Loaches, pleco & corys seem fine.

Fish are in a planted 180 rio tank.

Temp was at 27-28 degrees until last week, now at 25.

Have tried a few doses of acriflavine, some melafix, primafix and aquapet antibacterial drops. Also put fox, platies into a salt bath yesterday. Done lots of reading but can't decide what to use which will actually work without harming loaches and catfish. Any ideas appreciated!

Another couple of things - majority of fish fine including swordtails, loaches etc but some fish are shimmying off of objects too. Any ideas? Thanks

I was completely wrong with my first diagnosis so I've edited this post.

Sounds like columnaris.

Sounds like columnaris.

+1 more columnaris than velvet and definitely not white spot from the description given (white film etc). There is a good Cichlid forum article on attempting to treat it..

+1 more columnaris than velvet and definitely not white spot from the description given (white film etc). There is a good Cichlid forum article on attempting to treat it..

Ahh yeah, i missed the part about the film. I read flashing and spots and seemed to miss the rest.

I'm with you guys on that then - columnaris would be my pick too. I treated it in my guppies and cured it with salt baths and melafix in a seperate hospital tank for the infected only.

It should be pointed out that without getting it diagnosed properly (samples taken and cultured/examined by someone who knows what they are doing) anything we suggest is only a rough guess it could really be anything.

But that article for columnaris is here

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/columnaris_disease.php

Thanks, I can't really use salt with the loaches, corys and catfish from what I hear and I imagine I should try and treat the whole tank. Is Furan2 good for columaris, safe for loaches etc and is it available in Auckland? I'll go and lol at the other suggested site now. Most of my fish are fine though - is this normal?

Thanks for your comments:)

I found that most of my fish were fine to start with but it spread slowly through them.

Thanks, I can't really use salt with the loaches, corys and catfish from what I hear and I imagine I should try and treat the whole tank. Is Furan2 good for columaris, safe for loaches etc and is it available in Auckland? I'll go and lol at the other suggested site now. Most of my fish are fine though - is this normal?

Thanks for your comments:)

I have used salt with clown loaches/bristlenoses before.. Usual story, siphon out a bucket of water before treating, add salt slowly and observe, if any of the fish flip out then rip them straight out into your bucket of clean water..

I use salt with clown loaches, king tiger plec, sterbais, bn and no issues but I have never done a salt dip. I use it in the main tank.

Cheers, anyone know if Furan-2 is safe for loaches, catfish and fry and the best place to buy it?

Yep, it's safe and you get it from any fish shop.

If it is columnaris it is a bacteria and needs to betreated with an antibiotc. I think tri-sulpha is normally used but requires a vet visit and prescription. Furan2 can be bought from the petshop. Treat the whole tank as per the instructions.

Im going to go against the grain and say its probably not columnaris, although you may have it as a result. To me this sounds like very very poor maintenance and over feeding. Resulting in ammonia and various other tank condition spikes, would have caused the cloudiness, made your fish very sick etc. Filter stopped is a big red flag!

Sometimes the worst thing you can do is medicate your fish before they need to be, this can cause undue stress, destroy the healthy bacteria trying to rebuild your ecosystem and potentially cause more deaths than needed.

If i where you i would do 20% water changes every second day, a tiny bit of melafix and a sache of peat to help calm the fish, The fish that have spots and cotton mouth will be a result of stress and bad conditions, these fish should have individual salt baths for a short period of time, perhaps a couple times a week till there symptoms subside. Do this with an external container, don't medicate the whole tank until you have healthy parameters and the fish have settled again.

Hi, I thought I'd better get back to you all after all of the advice you kindly gave me. I found some Furan 2 on Trade me. (I can't believe Animates charges $40+ for it and it is $25 on Teade me LOL, it so pays to shop around!) anyway, I used it on my tank and fish seem better and my Flying Fox's fungus has also cleared up so all good!