Columnaris - what worked for me

swamp-rat

Active Member
I've historically treated columnaris as no big deal, but recently after having acquired a number of fish from the Wetspot and ALL had columnaris I did some research and discovered it's actually gotten fairly resistant to most meds. Most of my fish that have gotten it were small schoolers that I didn't mind losing a few, until now. I got a pair of WC Betta rutilans and some dwarf cichlids I really wanted to keep alive, so I went for the big guns right from the start:

Bifuran
Kanaplex
1% salt solution

I lost a couple the first day (possibly more from the stress of the ride home) but it seems to be working really well for all the others. Some fish were really covered the first day (didn't appear that way when I got them...) that are now clean. I'd been misdiagnosing this for years, thinking it was supposed to be the "fuzzy" kind of infection, but it looks more like thick mucoid slime, sometimes with a single node protruding from the side of a fish so it looks like a worm. Anyway, thought I'd share, and here's a good resource page I found:
http://www.myaquariumclub.com/columnaris-and-what-i-have-learned...-1689.html
 
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