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hey there, just thought i would update whats going on - remember the "worried about my fish" posts? well here goes.

i treated the tank for worms, couldnt get hold of metronizadole- tho tried with a general de wormer- there hasnt been any further white poops, only the two.

any way i then removed the neons and black widows to a 20g qt i set up, i wanted to treat them all together with the wormer to be safe before moving to the qt- however the delay on moving led to a large out break of fungus/columnaris on the morning of the move on the neons. i treated with tetracycline for 5 days doing 25% changes daily. i couldnt get hold of maracyn 1 or 2 out here in wup wup! luckily i caught the neons early and they all cleared up immidietly, this treatment didnt make much difference to the 3 bw now showing advanced signs of infection,. i removed one bw and euthanised him when his infection led to a sore inhibiting his life too the point of cruelty. with 2 bws still infected i tried dosing with a fungal cure (malachite based) to no avail. i continued large scale water changes (feeling very guilty due to the drought) and tried promethyasul again and have had a good result- the infection has cleared largely, tho leaving sores on both bws, one on his fore head and one on the others flank.

overall there has been alot of disease on a slow moving scale- there has been the constant columnaris threat though only really infecting one fish at a time. the ich out break was easily contained and i was lucky to catch the large scale out break as it happened. there have been few deaths in total (2bws and 0ne neon). i have re engineered the tank- removed a load of small driftwwod peices and moved the larger peice to a more central position. i have also removed a lot of plants to make tidying fully alot more easy of an easy task. this aswell as removing alot of potential decaying plant matter and increasing the circulation of the tank- the rams nad plecos remain happy and well. hopefully this will eliminate whatever was causing the problem in the first place.

i did a large change today (75%) ((im talking about the quarantine again byw!) and treated with promethyazul again- hopefully this will clear up any remanents of the disease. i then have a tub of shelf bought bacteria i aim to combine with some material from the old filter to get the qt cycling asap. i aim to use mela fix to help heal the sores - will this hinder the bacterial delopment of the filter?

also how long will the antibiotics stay in the water- i have done a 4 25&changes a 50% and a 75% change since completing the tetracyline treatment and am wandering if it will still inhibit the growth of beneficial bacteria?

No it wont, its a contact bactericide outside of a fish's body, only retaining a toxic effect over the longer period within a fish's bloodstream. So diluted as it has become from all the water changes, it is no longer potent. If you want to be sure, run some carbon. I think bacterial recolonisation will already be underway.

On the persistance with columnaris, as I have said many times before, oxytetracycline will kill it, but it isnt the most effective med, its also a very old med and bacterial resistance to the drug is commonplace. To date I trust only furan to destroy it completely.

Melafix may hinder bacterial growth if used from the get-go, but usually an established bacterial colony can resist it. Its safe for use in mature tanks, but it may hinder the development of a fledgeling colony.
If the major source of columnaris has been properly treated for an appropriate time, extra contact from melafix should be unecessary. Youve already given them antibiotic.

okey cheers for that lhg, i will run some carbon and continue with daily water changes and hopefully they can heal up....

thanks mate

Check Pets Paradise, they are now stocking the Jungle range of products including Jungle Fungus Eliminator which is a furan-based medication (nitrofurazone & furazolidone). I don't know if they are doing this with the permission of the APVMA so if you want it, grab it quickly as I think once they twig as to what drugs are in it, they'll be forced to pull it.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett