Need Help Treating Flexibacter

[kona2]

I have a 8 week old 29 gallon tank stocked with 4 lemon tetra. One of the tetra developed a white flat lesion on his upper lip about 6 days ago. No other white spots on him or any of the tank mates. The upper lip is completely white. I am fairly certain it's flexibacter columnaris (cotton mouth disease) after reading about fish diseases.

I am just finishing the 5th day of treating the entire tank with maracyn & maracyn2. I don't have a hospital tank, and didn't want this to spread to the other fish. So far so good...all fish are still alive & appear in normal behavior. But the affected tetra's lip is still opaque white (the spot is not any larger at least). I was hoping it would have cleared up by now.Does anyone have suggestions for treating flex effectively?

I did a 25% water change after day one of treatment before treating again on day 2. Recent chemistries:
temp 78 degrees, pH 7.8, nitrites 0, NH3 0. The instructions on Maracyn state to re-treat another 5 days if needed. Should I change the water 25 % before starting again for another 5 day cycle? I am assuming the tablets are timed release, so changing the water at the end of a day, before adding new doses would be good to the water quality.Am I wrong? Anyone ever used salt as an rx? I read somewhere that you can treat 1 tsp per gallon to the tank to help kill off fungus...but maybe this is a bad idea if flexibacter is truly a bacterial condition.

It's sad to see the fishtank all cloudy from the antibiotics (I took the carbon filter out for treatment). I want to see them happy in the clean clear waters again. If anyone has advice, I'd appreciate your input, and so would the Lemons. Thanks!

[lizwinz]

your right, water changing before you add the next dose is the best way to go

salt would be a big help as it helps speed healing by stimulating their slime coat and helping with gill function...it also is possible that it does cure some diseases but i wouldnt totally depend on salt alone...but it sure dosent hurt to use it with other meds

i usually use 1tbl per 5 gal

is it possible to q-tank the fish that is showing the spots?...you can possibly protect your other fish from this disease by doing so also you avoid trashing your biofilter

i just use a 20gal rubbermaid contanier....i can break it down and store all the equipment inside when i dont need it and when i set it up for the first week or so i just take media from my other tanks and squeeze them out in the q-tank filter...and its cycled

its a handy thing to have around and you wont be tempted to stock it because it isnt a real "tank"

it sounds like youve done a good job researching diseases and treating appropriately but sometimes diseases can be difficult to diagnose even for the most experianced fishkeepers so it possible that it could be something else

so i'd say continue treating as you are, add salt and get a q-tank if possible and see how it goes...he dosent seem to be getting any worse and that in itself could be a good sign

good luck and keep us updated

--liz