Info on Columnaris

[brewmaster15]

Columnaris spp.is *a simple pathogenic gram negative bacteria. It is commonly found in soil, water and on healthy and sick fish.Its an opportunistic bacteria attacking sickened, weakened, immuno-compromised fish. Fish that are weakened by toxic ammonia as can occur in shipping, poorly cycled tanks , overstocked tanks, poor water quality, physically damaged fish, higher temperatures, low dissolved oxygen, high pH or any combination of these.

In nature outbreaks only occur in lakes and streams during oxygen depravation times such as droughts and high temperatures of the summer months. The rest of the time it doesn't just disappear, but if the fish are healthy its not a problem.

In a tank it has the potential to spread thru the air to another tank, more likely by equipment and a persons own hands during cleaning. But is still does not spread to all fish in the tank if the tank is cleaned, regularly water changes, no stress conditions , and plenty of dissolved oxygen. Its numbers would still have to be great to over come *a healthy fishes immune system.

IMO and IME the number one mistake people make with columnaris is they mistreat it because most don't take the time to even learn what it is. Heres the way not to treat it- Jack up the temperature.... Sure it works to help a fish get its immune system going a little, but it speed up the reproduction of bacteria. Higher temps also decrease oxygen in the water, speed up fish metabolism and subsequent waste productions. Then start dumping in every antibacterial you can think of, stress you fish out a little more, *this gives columnaris even more of a chance to multiply.

Incidentally, the more pathogenic strains thrive at pH of around 8.0. Acidic water and tannins are inhibitory, salt has been shown to inhibit its reproduction as well. It has also been shown to thrive on uneaten fish foods and wastes.

If you are really concerned about the disease , read the attached and any other info you can find. Its not the dreaded disease its been made out to be on these forums. Its preventable, and treatable if contracted and recognized. Quaranteens are extremely useful as its allows you the opportunity to recognize an "ACUTE" infection in the fish. Acute infections can release large numbers of bacteria into the water and overwhelm other fish. You have to know what you are dealing with though in order to treat any illness..

www.lsc.usgs.gov/fhl/fdl/fdl84.htm
agpublications.tamu.edu/p...479bfs.pdf
www.aquarium.net/0997/0997_2.shtml
edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FA030
www.vet.uga.edu/ivcvm/200...SAMPLE.htm
www.fredonia.edu/StudentE...ingbio.htm
aquanic.org/courses/aq448...cteria.htm
aqua.ucdavis.edu/welfare/dxstable.pdf
nps.ars.usda.gov/publicat...0000108405
http://www.dphnet.com/sub-article/ca...umnaries.shtml

so what do you use to treat it ?
1) potassium permanganate is highly effective as *a dip and *tank treatment.
2) Doxycycline and tetra cycle work well also, but will trash bio filters *and should be used sparingly to prevent resistent strain from forming.
3) High salt concentrations, as in *1 tablespoon / 1 gal water... *watch the fish *for signs *of stress, and cutback *the salt if you see any. *salt does not kill columnaris , but *it can slow it down *significantly. *
4)Water changes... The more water you remove the more bacteria you theoretically remove. Concentrate on cleanliness. Columnaris is a substrate *bacteria, it thrives on foods and feces.
5) Increase aeration.... most severe out breaks occur in low oxygen *waters.... Avoid increasing *water temp, its like adding miracle grow to a weed. *
6) do not use a *cocktail med. Shot gun medications cause *far more harm than good.... A good specific *Gram negative *antibiotic should *be used , and *all *direction *followed. *Resistence * to *meds is a growing problem. It comes *from using the wrong *meds for the wrong *time course.


Hth, al

[brewmaster15]

Addendum1-- pH
 Lowering the pH/hardness may help..  
There is a well known researcher of columnaris--- Decostere. published a   paper in  The Journal of Fish  Diseases( 1999,22, 1-11,  article was  ... Influence  of Water Quality  and temperature on Adhesion of High and Low Virulence Flavobacterium Columnaris Strains  to isolated Gill Arches).  This paper was an excellent set of controlled experiments examining the conditions  which affect  the bacteria's ability  to attach to substrate. This attaching is  the first stage  in a columnaris infection. What the study found was that most of the strains  of columnaris  are inhibited  by  salt,  and  require certain minerals  to attach.  remove  the mineral and they cant  attach well. This  was shown  for all but the most  pathogenic strain.  This  might  explain why pH   worked  once , but not the other time. -- just  a thought.

If anybody wants the article I  can email it to you

Addendum 2
symptoms are  any of these... yellowish or whitish lesions on the skin, fins , Gills. Usually the area affected  looks kind of pale compared to the rest of the fish.   To me , it looks mildew.   One of its common names is  "saddle patch" because  it can  cover the  fish dorsal and lateral, resembling a saddle shape.  
 Large areas  of skin  and mucous  can be shed  as the bacteria secrets a special  digestive enzyme where it is attached to the fish.  
  Aside  from  the above general symptoms, The best way to ID it  is to take a scrapping of the affected  area and look at under a  microscope and look at it as a wet mount. This bacteria is actually pills up and forms  columns that move  under the scope- hence  the name.
    This bacteria  is a major problem  in aquaculture and has been studied pretty extensive. A real good genera article is  put out by the Southern Regional aquaculture  
center, pub#479... Down load it  @ http://agpublications.tamu.edu/pubs/efish/479bfs.pdf
  hope this helps,  
al

[Ardan]

The pic of Columnaris below was "used with permission from "Handbook of Fish Diseases" by TFH Publications, INC.