Betta fish with Columnaris?

[Yuuki]

I posted a question earlier about my new betta; I've only had him for 5 days. He's been lethargic, the area under his gills is white and he's developing moldy-looking lesions on his face.


He started swimming around a bit ago and I noticed bits of stringy, cotton like substance falling from inside of his gills! Looking closer, I can see that it's also attaching itself to his fins. I'm am almost 100% sure this is Columnaris.


How on earth do I treat this? Preferably with something I can get from the Petco or Petsmart. They're aren't any vets that will see fish at all in my area.

 

[a8feasuhf]

i found this online sorry >.< if it doesnt help

Treatment

As noted previously, water quality plays a vital role in the prevention and cure of this disease. Prior to initial dosing of any medication to the aquarium, one should perform a large water change (30-50%) with a thorough gravel cleaning in order to remove excess detritus and waste from the substrate.

There are several medications in the marketplace to treat Columnaris. One should follow the manufacturer's instructions for treatment, as different producers, use different concentrations, & it is therefore impossible to give a standard treatment for all the medications out there. Some persons advocate using copper sulphate, but in our opinion, the risk of further damage to the gills of the fish, is too great, and we do not recommend this drug for this disease.

At Fish-Vet we produce several very effective treatments for this condition. Aqua Pro-Cure and Revive are both a blended mixture of several components to treat this and other diseases. Acriflavine-MS and Metro-MS are single compound medications, specifically acriflavine neutral and metronidazole respectively, which will also bring this disease under control. Please note that Aqua Pro-Cure and Revive are reef and invertebrate safe which makes them the treatment of choice for such an aquarium.

In treating the fish, one should always make allowances for the degree of infection, as weakened fish may not always withstand the full dosage, either in strength, or period of time. This call is one which either one builds up experience over time or with the help of a dealer whose expertise you can trust.

In severely advanced cases, when the disease has already progressed to the point that fatalities, have either already occurred or it is evident that they happen momentarily, there is as I pointed out earlier, a high possibility that further bacterial systemic infection will take place. In such cases, only the use of powerful antibiotics have any real chance of saving the fish, and the one which is most commonly used in this condition with good effect is oxytetracycline.