Treating 3 of My Aquariums With API Furan-2 and Seachem KanaPlex for Cichlids With Columnaris

[OB Guy]

I just started treatment today on 3 of my aquariums (125 gallon and two 20 gallon) with API Furan-2 and Seachem KanaPlex. All 3 tanks have African Cichlids in them and some of the fish appear to have Columnaris. I normally use the 20 gallon tanks for quarantining new fish and treating sick fish but both of them are stocked pretty heavy right now so like a fool I added several OB Peacock Cichlids I bought a couple weeks ago to all three aquariums including my 125 gallon display tank. I noticed within a couple days after adding the new OB's they were sick. The new fish started getting what looked like a fungus so I started a treatment with API Melafix and Pimafix. It appeared to be working but the fish then started getting open sores on their bodies where the fungus was and stopped eating, so I new I had bigger problems. The Culumnaris has now spread to some of my bigger fish so hopefully the API Furan-2 and Seachem KanaPlex works. I've never had any fish with Columnaris that I know of in all the years I've had aquariums so this is my first time using API Furan-2 and Seachem KanaPlex together as a treatment.

 

[OB Guy]

Update on API Furan-2 and Seachem KanaPlex Treatment for Columnaris:

Today is day 3 of the Columnaris treatment for my sick fish with API Furan-2 and Seachem KanaPlex medications on 3 of my aquariums. So far things seem to be improving with the sick fish in all 3 tanks. The first night after starting the treatment I lost 2 more OB Peacock Cichlids in the 125 gallon aquarium but I can see major improvement in the remaining fish in all 3 aquariums now. Today being day 3 of the treatment I have to do a 25% water change in all 3 tanks per the instructions on the API Furan-2 then continue treatment with both medicines. I cut back on feeding the fish while treating so the aquariums don't have a ammonia spike. Last night I feed the fish a small amount of food and it appeared they were all eating again and looking for more.

 

[OB Guy]

Yesterday was the last dose of API Furan-2 and the second dose of Seachem KanaPlex for the Columnaris treatment on my Cichlids. Today will be another 25 percent water change in the 3 aquariums that I'm treating. Tomorrow will be the last dose of Seachem KanaPlex. Other than losing 2 OB Peacock Cichlids the first night of the treatment I haven't lost any more fish since and I don't see any signs of the disease on anything in the tanks. After the last treatment of KanaPlex tomorrow I'll wait a day and add some carbon to get the medications and the yellow tint in the water from the API Furan-2 out of the aquariums. Both medications do say that a second treatment can be done if there's signs of Columnaris on any fish. I will keep a close eye on them and as long as they're all eating and look good I'm not planning on doing a second treatment.

 

[OB Guy]

Well it seems the Seachem KanaPlex and API Furan-2 treatment helped but it didn't get rid of the Columnaris completely. Monday was the last treatment of Seachem KanaPlex. I did another 25 percent water change and added carbon Tuesday to get the medications and the yellow tint out of the water from the API Furan-2. Also on Tuesday I started mixing the Seachem KanaPlex and Focus to the fish food and have been feeding them once a day while the carbon is removing the medications from the water. The fish that are still eating seem to be healthy. Seachem recommended mixing the KanaPlex and Focus to the food and feed them once a day for 7 days. If that doesn't rid the fish Of the Columnaris I'm going to switch to mixing Seachem NeoPlex and Focus to the food for another 7 days. At this point I'm trying to save the fish that are still eating. I've tried to net the few fish that aren't eating but there's still a couple in the 125 gallon aquarium that I haven't been able to catch. I've basically come to the conclusion as a last resort I may have to empty all three aquariums and euthanize the fish and disinfect the aquariums and everything in them. Hopefully that's not the case.

 

[OB Guy]

Well I'm still battling with sick fish and have now started using Seachem ParaGuard yesterday and still mixing the KanaPlex in the fish food. At least the fish that have survived are all eating. I'm guessing that all together I lost 10-15 fish since this fungus started 3 weeks ago. Normally I would never use this much medicine on my fish and I've never had to treat fish this long to get rid of parasites, fungus or any diseases. Whatever this is it spread like wildfire. I'm determined to not have to empty my aquariums and disinfect everything.

 

[OB Guy]

The Seachem ParaGuard seems to have done the trick and all the fish are now back to eating and seem fine. I wound up treating with the Seachem ParaGuard for 2 weeks and it's been a few days since the last treatment with no signs of any sick fish.