? about columnaris and water temp

[hiitt2006]

I purchased my betta about 3 weeks ago and put him in a 2.5 mini-bow,unheated.Temp was around 74 degrees and he seemed perfectly fine.

After reading many posts here I learned that increasing the water temp. up towards 78-79 would be a good idea,so I purchased a 25 watt heater,did a 100% water change and in he went.

He seemed ok the first 24 hours but then became sick.That was on Monday and has gotten much worse since then.

I'm thinking from researching and reading posts and looking at pictures that he has columnaris.He has the white strands on his body,barely moving,just floating on top,he does switch positions from time to time.He will not eat and overall it looks like the end is near

As far as treatment,I added salt and Jungle lab Fungus clear yesterday.Today I unplugged the heater to slowly bring the water temp back down to around 74 again.

My main question I guess is do you think its possible that putting him in the heated water somehow brought out the columnaris.Nothing has changed other then that and thats right when he got sick.

Any help would be appreciated
Thanks

[amanichen]

What's likely is that there was a small amount of columnaris present on the fish, or in the water, and the rise in temperature did the following:

1. Increase the growth rate of the columnaris
2. Stress the fish out

The combination of the two could account for the columnaris infection. The water change could also have stressed the fish out.