I and others are trying to
isolate the main culprit, not the secondary invader columnaris.
99% of these
infection start from a mechanical injury - see
mechanical injury e.g.
bricks/rocks/decking/plant baskets/un protected jubilee clips/pampas grass
growing into water. skimmers, (chagois)/ gravel in pond bottom/ outlet pipes
just under water surface/ poor netting of fish. treatment I have tried
everything and I mean that every drug known to fish keeping.
NO
injection works, the only product that works is vit C in every meal for 3
months, and that does work every time. I have not had a failure provided it's
caught early.
I had a 30in chag brought in with it's upper and lower
mouth affected, right back to nasal passage and under side nearly to the gill
covers. After treatment all had grown back although scared.
The wound
must be cleaned with iodine (keep away from gills and throat). What you see in
these pictures fish is well beyond treatment, but you would be surprised how
many fish get to this stage before the problem is noticed. These pictures were
sent to me by a client who checks his fish every day, but it's a very large
pond 20,000gal.
I have found fish as advanced as the ones in the
pictures in small koi ponds of 1000gal and who have diligent owner. The best
way to check is when the fish are feeding - if they cannot take pellets off the
surface - if food comes out the gills or if they will not feed when other fish
are about. And there's many more.
If your fish are like mine, they'll
will climb out pond when being fed, then its still not 100% as
In
spring and autumn columnaris may be in the cut, but does not seem to do much
damage. There's a bacterium, or it may be it's a cocktail of bacteria, which
eats away the fishes flesh and cartilage, but at this moment in time I and
others have no idea - that's why its called mouth cancer - because like
columnaris, fresh water anthrax dissolves tissue to feed on it but columnaris
is not found in enough abundance to warrant the damage done to the fish's
tissue.