does this mean that colamnaris can be in the water just lurking about for any amount of time without manifesting itself... is it in all water or does it need to be brought in by a carrier?
Early last year I bought two nice male guppys (imports) but within days they had died and then one by one I lost most of my other guppies, starting with the males and then the females. It looked like columnaris and the other guppy's were trying to eat the white stuff of the dead and dying! Only guppies were affected, nothing else. I dropped the temp, treated the tank and saved the last remaining few guppies. I have been building up my guppies slowly again since then and they had been fine for months ... until ...summer hit, the temp went up to 27oC in the tank ( my therm is set to 25oC) and then I lost a few more guppies again .. just in that one tank, not in the others, and just guppies. But this time there were no visible signs of columanaris.
I had read that columnaris will thrive at 27oC+ so I'm wondering if it was dormant until the warmer temp and then got some of my new fish .. who again were imports (all but one died ) .. the NZ ones have been unaffected, and the juvenile fry from the imports unaffected. That was about a month ago.. the rest seem fine now but I'm watching like a hawk for any signs of sickness and have added a couple of new ones and they all seem ok.