Hole in the head.....the never ending battle.....

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Gulp

Nom, nom, nom.
Dec 16, 2003
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I am about to give up. I finally got Gulps hole in the head to die down a bit on his upper back, but then a few weeks ago this massive hole starts to form near his left eye. AGGGHHH!!! I am keeping the water changed regularly, I am not using carbon, I feed him 2 diffent types of staple food along with jumbo shrimp that I soak in liquid vitamins every other night. This hole is nasty looking and is moving towards his eyes.... His nostrils have already rotted away. This is incredibly frustrating..... :(

Here's a good shot of this dang hole that won't heal......


Here's a shot of the other side. Several weeks ago, his upper back near the front of his dorsal was really bad. You can kind of see it in this shot, but it's finally healed over (was down to white flesh)



He's such a nice looking fish......and he's getting ruined by a disease I can't do much about. :(
 

daveedka

Purple is the color of Royalty
Jan 30, 2004
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I wasn't sure if you were still around, hadn't seen your name for a while. You may have already seen this artcle, but just in case, it's pretty good. You seem to be doing most if not all of what it says to do, but you may glean something new from it that could help. The only thing I might reccomend is to up your vitamins and see if that helps any. The hole on his back seems to be healing, the one on his head isn't as big so maybe you are slowly winning the battle. don't give up.
HITH

Good luck,
Dave
 

NickH

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Oct 12, 1998
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If it's any consolation, I could never keep Oscars without them getting HITH either. I gave up on these fish a long time ago. I think it had something to do with the hard, alkaline water. I've pretty much ruled out most SA cichlids as a whole. Sticking with CA and African cichlids has worked out much better for me.
 

Lazersniper

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Mar 9, 2004
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I've read somewhere that overdoing with the vitamins can be a bad thing instead of a good thing. You know the old "too much of a good thing can be a bad thing". Perhaps concentrate on high vitamin C foods instead of all vitamins. To many vitamins in the diet could possibly be overworking things like the liver. I'm no expert so take it with a grain of salt.
 

daveedka

Purple is the color of Royalty
Jan 30, 2004
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Lazersniper, I would agree fully with your thoughts, the major problem with trying to give a fish vitamins is getting the vitamins into the fish. soaking food only puts small amounts into the food, and it is hard to say how much. Also vitamins dissipate, or reduce very quickly in water, so you have a second fight in that regard. In the acticle I linked, it reccomends vitamins twice a week for standard prevention and health, but reccomends daily vitamins for fish already suffering from hith. As gulp said he was doing the vitamins every other day, I thought he might try upping that until the ulcers clear up on his fish. I didn't mean that as a standard reccomended practice.
HTH
 

Gulp

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Dec 16, 2003
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Originally posted by daveedka
Lazersniper, I would agree fully with your thoughts, the major problem with trying to give a fish vitamins is getting the vitamins into the fish. soaking food only puts small amounts into the food, and it is hard to say how much. Also vitamins dissipate, or reduce very quickly in water, so you have a second fight in that regard. In the acticle I linked, it reccomends vitamins twice a week for standard prevention and health, but reccomends daily vitamins for fish already suffering from hith. As gulp said he was doing the vitamins every other day, I thought he might try upping that until the ulcers clear up on his fish. I didn't mean that as a standard reccomended practice.
HTH
As far as the vitamins go.....I am not sure what the best method of feeding is. If I try to soak his Hikari pellets in the liquid vitamins.....he spits them out and won't eat them. I have been taking frozen shrimp (jumbo white shrimp), poking a bunch of holes in them with a fork once they are thawed, then I soak them in the liquid vitamins for 10-40 minutes until the shrimp turns yellow from the vitamins. He goes nuts over the shrimp. I am going to try some other type of meat soon just to mix things up. I am almost afraid I wasn't feeding him enough for a while and maybe that's what caused this latest outbreak....... I will just keep experimenting to see if anything works.

Once his back and forehead started clearing up........I stopped giving Gulp the vitamin soaked shrimp for several weeks. Probably a big mistake because that's when this new, deep spot opened up and started to grow. If I can get him healed again, I will just make sure I stick to giving him the vitamins at least once a week......but as mentioned by you guys, I will try not to overdose him in vitamins. Thanks for the advice and comments. :D
 
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Gulp

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Dec 16, 2003
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Originally posted by Cearbhaill
With all that food it must be very difficult to keep the water clean as is suggested in all the HITH literature. How often are you changing water? I'd be doing a large portion daily- at least 50%.
Actually, the water stays very clean with my set-up. It's a 110 gallon tank with (2) Magnum 350's, and one Emperor 400 running all the time, and I only have one oscar, and one lace cat in the tank. I keep one of the magnums running with a regular sleeve, and the other with a micron filter. I swap micron filters once a week to clean them (I have 2 that I rotate) as they get clogged pretty fast. The Emperor 400 cartridges are always clean and require minimal rinsing, as well as the sleeve in the 2nd Magnum. I guess the lace cat does a good job of breaking Gulp's waste down as I rarely see ANY poo laying around.

I do a 25-35% water change once a week......sometimes skipping a week occassionally. All water tests show everything is fine.......but I have NOT checked the nitates as I don't have a kit for that (might be the problem....). After re-reading those articles, I am going to order a nitrate tester immediately, I just figured the frequent water changes would keep the nitrates down.......but it's stupid for me not to have a test kit (it's also stupid that the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Freshwater Master Test Kit doesn't COME with a nitrate tester.....).
 

Cearbhaill

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Mar 22, 2003
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When you are battling something as difficult as HITH clean water is your very best defense. And while your nitrate reading might seem (when you get it) very low- it can still be cleaner.

Definitely need more frequent water changes IMO.
 

Gulp

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Dec 16, 2003
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Originally posted by Cearbhaill
When you are battling something as difficult as HITH clean water is your very best defense. And while your nitrate reading might seem (when you get it) very low- it can still be cleaner.

Definitely need more frequent water changes IMO.
You are probably right.... I will up the water changes a bit, but changing 50 gallons a day....wow. Maybe I will try that for a week and see if I notice any difference...but that's a lot of water... :eek: :D
 
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