help! possible columnaris?

[Anine]

just noticed one of my glowlight tetras has whitish fungus like patches on its tailfin, mouth and gills. it ate heartily earlier tonight and seems to be behaving normally otherwise.

did a bit of research and it sounds like it could be a columnaris infection?
I'll get pics in the morning.

I dont have a hospital tank but can get one tomorrow morning if need be, or can do a bath/wash if I can catch the fish. tank also has some plants which I dont want to kill!

what's the best treatment?

help please!

[SalmonAfrica]

Hi there

It's best to identify the disease before applying any form of treatment, so a picture will be of great use here to help identify the ailment.

Columnaris is normally associated with other symptoms as well, some of them very obvious. Are there any other symptoms? It could also be a fungal infection... if it IS columnaris, you'll need a bacterial treatment,; if it's a fungus, obviously, a fungal treatment will be needed.

Both forms of illness will respond well to an improvement in water quality, so up your water changes for now. A small dose of salt will work well also, but I recommend doing this out of the main aquarium (ie: quarentine tank or in the form of a salt bath, the latter being a higher dose but shorter term).

Fungal infection will only take hold of fish that are not 100% on form, so there may be something ailing the fish. Besides water quality which I mentioned earlier, there may be other fish causing stress to this fish? Is there any way in which this fish may have been injured?

HTH