# now what do I do?



## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Ok, I treated my white cloud minnow with tri sulpha because I thought he/it may have had columnaris. Some of the white area did seem to improve with the treatment but now I have him back in the main tank again I can see the small saddle like colorless area is still behind his head and worse it again appears to be not just in the tissue but as if there is a white something standing up from the body.
I do not know if it is a fungus, loose scale, scar tissue or what. The fish eats well and has regained his body color that he lost while being treated in the q tank.( Q tanks seem to stress fish out because they are in a strange place). I dunno what else to do with him. I would hate for it to be columnaris-- I thought maybe neon tetra disease. Perhaps he injured his neck in some way? However the marking is the same on both sides of his neck.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

WHY did you put a sick fish back in the main tank? Qtine is the least of a sick fish's worries. 
It sounds like you've got a really stubborn infection that will take some doing to remove.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

because the package says that 4 days of treatment is the complete treatment.And the mark seemed to have cleared up for the most part and I figured that perhaps fish are like humans and have some residual scarring after treatments are done.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

*follow up to the possible columnaris.*

I did remove the minnow from the main tank again and gave him another treatment. I also did a 100 % water change after the last treatment. He was in a 1 gallon tank. When I left him he was swimming around his tank seemingly in no distress, but when I checked on him a few hours later he was dead. The saddle mark actually had cleared up.
The manager at Big Al's recommended that I treat the main tank in case it was columnaris and recommended metronidazole. I was a bit surprised as I had done extensive reading on the internet and especially on fishfarmacy about the best treatments and the consensus was to use the triple sulfa. However Chuck said that the metronidazole would kill gram negative organisms. My argument was that yes it does treat gram negs but it tends to only kill anaerobic bacteria while columnaris is aerobic. I had my doubts that the metron. would work. However I have done 2 3day treaments with no ill effect on either the fish or the bio filter.. In the meantime my one old betta came up with white on her scales and some raised white areas with a bit of a white sheen to her body down one side only.
So I removed her and took her to the store. The manager that I like to deal with was not in but the fish room manager( the rude jerk) was in. He proceeded to tell me that my betta looked perfectly healthy except for a few spots of ick and that I just plainly worry about everything too much. While I was there I did point out to him that I do not have more trouble than others with my tanks but that I do like to know causes and cures for everything, and that a lot of people I know just replace fish on a regular basis when they die.
Anyway I do not think she has ick - certainly is atypical if it is ick. Mostly her scales just on one side of her body are white.
I have been doing daily 100% water changes on her as well as using pima and bettafix. The white sheen has gone , a few scales remain white but look better than before and she still is miss piggy when she eats.
because she is in with 2 other female bettas WHEN she is in the community tank I almost think that she may have damaged scales from squabbles with her siblings.
No other fish in the tank have any symptoms of fungus or white marks on the back. 
I really wonder what was wrong with the minnow that died, did the metronidazole do any good in the main tank
or was this just a random event that occured.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I've only heard metronidazole used for parasites. If you ever introduced unquarrantined fish, the metro could have cleared parasites out of the tank, so that would be a good thing.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

cleanest fish in town for parasites! got treated with prazipro before and now with metron.
In humans it is used for cases of crohns disease. The patients get really nasty abscesses deep in the bowel and other organs and the metron,. helps control them. Also used for brain abscesses.Works against gram neg anaerobes.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Did you hear they are treating Crohn's disease by feeding people roundworms? It seems that auto-immune diseases often improve if you give the immune system a real opponent to target.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

I heard that, Also they are trying it with celiac disease. I think I will wait until they get a pill that works instead of the worms thanks!


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