Can't control fungus or columnaris

ctemt

I need some help. I have a cat that developed a small white spot on it's head. Within a couple of day's it formed a cottony type look on it's head. I was told it was a fungus and I treated the 10 gal quarantine tank 3 times and the problem got worse. I was told it might be columnaris so I drained 25% of the water and treated it with Maracyn-2 for 5 day's with no results. The cat is still eating but now sit's in the back of the tank. I have tested the water and everything is normal. I appreciate any help anyone can give me.

Byron

What you describe is almost exactly what I experienced with 3 corys (all the same species interestingly, and nothing else in the tank had it) but the Maracyn cured it so I'm assuming it was columnaris. Mine had several of these patches or blotches, and after the second of the three treatments the patches disappeared although you can still see the "shadow" where they were on the fish. Is this what you have, or is the raised patch still on the fish?

ctemt

It actually looks as if there is a strip of cotton glued to it's back from the head halfway down it's back.

Byron

It could be fungus, and I realize you indicated that you treated it in the quarantine tank, but my best success treating fungus has been to net the fish (do this as carefully as you can to avoid stressing it out) and dab the "fungus" directly with methalene blue or malachite green. I do this by holding the netted fish just above the water so the 'fungus" is out of the water and then dabbing it with a Q-tip saturated in straight methelene blue or malachite green. I lower the fish back in the water just enough so it can respirate but not escape, and after a few seconds I repeat the process just to ensure I've got it covered. Then I release the fish back into the tank. No need to quarantine, this can be done in the main tank. I've had success with either dye. The fungus will immediately turn blue or green (depending) and within a couple of days is gone. If it is fungus, it is killed by the dye. This is the quickest and most certain method for fungus confined to one fish (which it usually is as it attacks open wounds and such).

While successful with fungus, this did not work with the columnaris which I at first thought might be fungus since it was confined to one spot on a cory. It's difficult (at least for me) to diagnose diseases that I haven't seen before. In my case it spread on the one fish and then overnight to the three corys (only), and it presumably was columnaris as the Maracyn 2 cured it with the three alternate days of treatment.

goldenfish112

You can use Malachite Green along with some non-iodized salt....maybe it could help