Kinbote Posted January 30, 2011 Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 As I've said in other topics on here, I've had an outbreak of what seems to be columnaris contracted from some infected fish that I got from Bird Barn. I'm treating my quarantine tank with Furan-2, and have been running one of my Aqua One CF1200 filters which I planned to transfer to my 800 litre tank once it's ready. I'm wondering what I need to do to ensure that I'm not going to contaminate my big tank when I transfer the filter over. Can I assume that if the fish are healthy after the treatment, that the filter will be clean too? Or should I replace the filter media to be safe? It'd probably cost about $100, but that might be cheaper than treating the 800 litre tank if I had an outbreak there. And should I throw out the gravel and decor from the quarantine tank once it's been treated? What's the protocol? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted January 30, 2011 Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 Columnaris is an opportunistic bacteria that lives in the water anyway, sterilising will not achieve anything. Infected fish do seem to increase the chances of other fish getting infected, but once the infection is gone in the fish the free-pathogen load should reduce back to normal. Personally I would let the filter run on the q-tank for a few weeks more, make sure both tanks are impeccably well-maintained, then switch over and there shouldn't be any problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted January 30, 2011 Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 Also you could try a test fish or two in the infected setup to see if it is clear, some fish well survive the infection but become carriers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BikBok Posted January 30, 2011 Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 Columnaris is an opportunistic bacteria that lives in the water anyway, 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted January 30, 2011 Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 yes it just lurks in the water. Every has it. Just like there is probably various cold viruses currently lurking in your nose - you are not getting sick because your immune system is robust. The heat could have caused the second bout of columnaris in your guppies (IF the heat is more than guppies like, I don't know anything about exotics) and/or any other stresses going on at the time, usually poor maintenance. Bikbok, if your new guppies all died and your older ones (in the same tank?) didn't, then the new ones were stressed and weak and your old ones were not (congratulations Of course fish diseases can be extremely hard to diagnose, there are many things that look like many other things. Either way, most diseases are either fish-carried (they HAVE to be in/on the fish to survive) or opportunistic things that are in the environment anyway waiting for the fish to get stressed and weak. Both options make sterilising a tank pretty pointless. Quarantine is vital for new fish - both to catch new diseases AND if the fish gets an opportunistic infection then the established fish are safe from the higher pathogen load. If an established aquarium gets sick, it then gets treated like a quarantine tank, i.e. nothing gets moved from this tank to anything other tank, including maintenance equip and wet hands, until several weeks after the illness has passed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BikBok Posted January 30, 2011 Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 thanks stella yep it started with the two import guppies at the beginning of last year. I usually do QT all new fish for a month - especially live bearers.. but stupid stupid me I didn't that one time and paid for it! :facepalm: I am meticulous with water changes etc so I don't think it was water quality. I'll put it down to those two fish - they must have been infected when I got them as one died the next day and the other a few days later - covered in the telltale white columnaris. I'm just glad the other fish were not infected.. otos, etc. I've come to the conclusion that guppys are not as hardy as their reputation! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted January 31, 2011 Report Share Posted January 31, 2011 thanks stella yep it started with the two import guppies at the beginning of last year. I usually do QT all new fish for a month - especially live bearers.. but stupid stupid me I didn't that one time and paid for it! :facepalm: I am meticulous with water changes etc so I don't think it was water quality. I'll put it down to those two fish - they must have been infected when I got them as one died the next day and the other a few days later - covered in the telltale white columnaris. I'm just glad the other fish were not infected.. otos, etc. I've come to the conclusion that guppys are not as hardy as their reputation! It is possible you had the guppy virus if it only affected your guppies.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinbote Posted February 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 After looking at a lot of photos, I think the cardinal tetras I got from Bird Barn probably had neon tetra disease, and columnaris as a secondary infection. I'm treating my quarantine tank with Furan-2, halfway through the second complete treatment cycle now, but it's having no discernible effect and my bleeding heart tetras are still getting infected and dying one after another (although the rosy tetras in the same tank still seem fine). As I've read, columnaris is an opportunistic infection that targets weak fish, but my ammonia and nitrite are both reading 0, I'm doing regular water changes and the fish were all very healthy before I brought in the infected cardinals. If it were columnaris, I'd expect the treatment to work, but is it possible that the bleeding hearts might be infected with (more or less incurable) neon tetra disease but only showing symptoms of columnaris as a secondary infection? I'd been working on the assumption that once the treatment's complete and the fish are healthy, I can assume my (big, canister) filter is also safe to transfer back to my main tank. But if they're infected with incurable neon tetra disease, will I then have to replace all the filter media to be safe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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