Bought fish from fish store with columnaris

[SalviniCichlidFan]

Have you tested your water?

Yes

If yes, what is your ammonia?

0

If yes, what is your nitrite?

0

If yes, what is your nitrate?

0.2

If I did not test my water...

1. ...I recognize that I will likely be asked to do a test, and that water tests are critical for solving freshwater health problems.

Do you do water changes?

Yes

What percentage of water do you change?

51-60%

How frequently do you change your water?

Every two weeks

If I do not change my water...

1. ...I recognize that I will likely be recommended to do a water change, and water changes are critical for preventing future freshwater health problems.

Here's the gist,

I recently went to Absolutely Fish and saw one of their tanks had jaguar cichlids with columnaris (obvious characteristic duck lips). It was a bit concerning, considering the high reputation of that store.

Nevertheless, I looked at other cichlids in separate tanks at the store and none had duck lips.

As such, I decided to purchase 2 African cichlids from a tank located decently far away from the tank with columnaris to ensure that the tank is too far away to be cross-contaminated with columnaris.

The Absolutely Fish website writes that

"A meticulous record is keep of all filter and water changes for all tanks. All of the freshwater tanks have separate filters to allow us to use specific medications and to prevent the spread of disease. It also allows us to closely monitor the water conditions within each tank so we can cater to the very specific needs of freshwater fishes"

Therefore, I am assuming that they do what they say and hopefully won't cross-contaminate colunarmis into the tank that I bought my fish from.

However, I am still playing it safe and quarantining the new fish for extra time. The only question is, how long does it take for fish to exhibit visible signs of columnaris after getting infected and also how long is a reasonable time to quarantine those fish before I put them in the main tank?

 

[Deadeye]

duanes could comment better than me.
Just to throw it out there, are you sure what you saw wasn’t damage from lip locking other fish? I’ve had a krib look like that for months - I thought columnaris at first but the fish should surely be dead by now if it was.

 

[SalviniCichlidFan]

duanes could comment better than me.
Just to throw it out there, are you sure what you saw wasn’t damage from lip locking other fish? I’ve had a krib look like that for months - I thought columnaris at first but the fish should surely be dead by now if it was.

I should've taken a picture my bad.

Reasons I think it is columnaris:
-The best way to describe it is that it looked like the jaguars had their mouth extended the way a fish looks when it's yawning.
-The mouths were extended the whole time for my 30 minute visit there.

Reasons I don't think it is columnaris:
-I didn't look too closely into the mouths (also cause the Jags were 3 inches), but it looked like there was no fungal or white growths around the mouths, just hyperextended of a long time.

-There were lots of polar-blue parrot convict cichlids in the tank as well and they were swimming normally and had no symptoms of columnaris (though this could be due to their genetically deformed mouths that make their mouths react differently to columnaris)

-There were only a few (2-3) jags in that tank, so maybe they just fought with each other?

-This LFS is highly-rated and has a good reputation of marking tanks as quarantine tanks when disease breaks out. There's lots of employees there, so surely at least one of them could see the mouth issue.

Anyways, what would you recommend is the proper protocol here? Should I quarantine my new fish for longer and if so how long? Also, do African cichlids exhibit symptoms of columnaris in a different way than American cichlids?

 

[duanes]

Just for reference, here are a few pick of Mayaheros beani, with columnais
!st thing I noticed, the cichlid had intense coloration, in the QT tank that darkened with the progession of the disease, yet only slightly extended jaw.

As the disease progessed the jaw exteneded more, and more and color deepened

If a normal locked jaw, the jaw can sometimes be push back into place with thumb and fore finger.
With columnaris, the jaw atropies so much, the jaw becomes frozen.

If it is columnaris, I would completely tear down the tank, euthanize the fish, bleach it and everything the even remotely touched the water (nets , tubes, tops etc). Because the bacteria can remain viable in an inert stage, in a dry smudge of dirt, ready to reinfect once wet for months, even years
Some people seem to have slowed it down, but I'm too wary of its virulence to chance reinfection.
Raising the water temp, makes it even more virulent

 

[Deadeye]

Just for reference, here are a few pick of Mayaheros beani, with columnais
!st thing I noticed, the cichlid had intense coloration, in the QT tank that darkened with the progession of the disease, yet only slightly extended jaw.
View attachment 1561834
As the disease progessed the jaw exteneded more, and more and color deepened
View attachment 1561835View attachment 1561836View attachment 1561837
If a normal locked jaw, the jaw can sometimes be push back into place with thumb and fore finger.
With columnaris, the jaw atropies so much, the jaw becomes frozen.
View attachment 1561838
If it is columnaris, I would completely tear down the tank, euthanize the fish, bleach it and everything the even remotely touched the water (nets , tubes, tops etc). Because the bacteria can remain viable in an inert stage, in a dry smudge of dirt, ready to reinfect once wet for months, even years
Some people seem to have slowed it down, but I'm too wary of its virulence to chance reinfection.
Raising the water temp, makes it even more virulent

How long did the disease in the pictured cichlid take to progress?

 

[duanes]

I recieved all 3 beani together in the summer of 2013.
The most obviously infected individual died in about a week.
Next one took another 2 to 3 weeks.
The last one between a month and six weeks.
This was back over 10 years ago, so a little hazy on details.
I do remember it was during a summer heat wave, and I'm sure the heat and elevated water temp, exacerbated its virulence, and its progression.

 

[duanes]

Although columnaris has been known since 1922, mosttly in crowded aquaculture fasilities.
I had never experienced it in cichlids, before 2013.
about the time It was dubbed flowerhorn disease
Because it became widely known about the time hybrids and mutants such as RHs and BPs sharted showing up.

My theory is because the Asian propagators of these mutant cichlids realized their innate lack of robust immunity, required antibiotics to get many to markeable size.
Thus they were then showered in antibiotic which in turn created super bug bacterial antibiotic resistant strains, which were able to cross over into legitimate cichlid species.