Hello all,
I have been battling a columnaris infection (or so I believe) for over a year now in my planted 125g. I have tried Polyguard (nitrofurantoin, malachite green and sulfathiazole) both in the water and in feed, kanamycin flakes, kanamycin in the water, and oxytetracycline flakes. Some of them knock the infection back for a bit, but it seems to come back every couple of months.
Symptoms: Congo tetras sometimes have a white patch on the flank, sometimes have clouding in the pupil, and I lost my male chocolate cichlid and recently my large altum angel to "duck lips".
I fear that moving the fish out, treating them in hospital tanks, and returning them to the main tank will only help temporarily. I want to completely wipe this infection from my fish and the tank, so I have slowly been increasing the salinity. I am fully expecting this to wipe out my plants, which is fine as long as I kill the infection.
However, I have been told that around 3ppt salinity the freshwater beneficial bacteria start to die. I plan to go up to at least 6ppt and as high as 10ppt to kill the infection. 10ppt would probably only be for a few hours as an in-tank bath.
So my question is: can I dose a "bacteria in a bottle" product to fight ammonia spikes? Do they make one for brackish systems? Will a marine one such as Biospira work?
Thanks guys, I have reached my last resort. Best of luck to my remaining altum and my large clown loach. The others should handle some salt just fine.
I have been battling a columnaris infection (or so I believe) for over a year now in my planted 125g. I have tried Polyguard (nitrofurantoin, malachite green and sulfathiazole) both in the water and in feed, kanamycin flakes, kanamycin in the water, and oxytetracycline flakes. Some of them knock the infection back for a bit, but it seems to come back every couple of months.
Symptoms: Congo tetras sometimes have a white patch on the flank, sometimes have clouding in the pupil, and I lost my male chocolate cichlid and recently my large altum angel to "duck lips".
I fear that moving the fish out, treating them in hospital tanks, and returning them to the main tank will only help temporarily. I want to completely wipe this infection from my fish and the tank, so I have slowly been increasing the salinity. I am fully expecting this to wipe out my plants, which is fine as long as I kill the infection.
However, I have been told that around 3ppt salinity the freshwater beneficial bacteria start to die. I plan to go up to at least 6ppt and as high as 10ppt to kill the infection. 10ppt would probably only be for a few hours as an in-tank bath.
So my question is: can I dose a "bacteria in a bottle" product to fight ammonia spikes? Do they make one for brackish systems? Will a marine one such as Biospira work?
Thanks guys, I have reached my last resort. Best of luck to my remaining altum and my large clown loach. The others should handle some salt just fine.
