Hole in the Head.....successful cures???

[Gulp]

Man that is one bright oscar. What do you feed him? I can't get the orange to "shine" on Gulp like your big boy.

 

[nimbusv]

I feed him Tetra cichlid sticks, Wardley cichlid pellets, live crickets, live earthworms, live crawfish, shrimp, an ocasional feeder.

 

[Una]

Hi Gulp

I actually joined this forum so I could reply to this thread. I have a juvenile tiger oscar (about 5.5" right now) and thankfully have not had to deal with HITH with on oscar yet, but I have successfully treated HITH on my oldest and dearest angelfish. Where are you located? I'm pretty sure metronidazole isn't available over the counter in the UK, but it is in North America. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals markets it in a product called General Cure. It's also found in Tetra Medicated Flake food. If you must get it through a pharmacy or vet, you want to dose at 125 mg per 10 gallons, treating every other day. I kept this up for 12 days (6 doses) and had complete success. I also did small daily water changes (5 - 10%) before adding the meds. As has already been mentioned, keep Gulp nice and warm, and I agree that adding 1 Tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water will help with healing, as well as aiding in respiration in the oxygen depleted water (the higher temps and meds both reduce the oxygen carrying capacity of the water).

If you want or need to 'net' Gulp in the future, consider 'netting' him in a brand new (no soap residue) pillow case. Also, you can hold him quite still with a wet towel. I know it's still no picnic, but I find it easier than trying to catch large fish in a little net with a long, skinny handle.

Hope this helps..

 

[Gulp]

Thanks for the info Una.

 

[tim_123]

this will help

i have an orange parrot fish that has hole in the head
has hole have slowed down and are not geting any bigger
i try heaps of things and every one said somthing different
i am still try to heal him and it has been 3 months i think
it is geting better,it is just the nitrates are to high and i don't over feed i do an 50% water change every 2 days ,i am 100%
sure he would be cured because nitrates are giving him 2nd infections of the disease.
this is what i tryed metro 400mg in an 20 litre tank every 2 days for 3 treatments i did 2 teatments after an week and when you treat the metro must do an 50% water change.
after you have treated the metro do another 50% change and use melafix until it heals and feed him food with heaps of vit c and raise the temperture to 27 a little salt will help.
it will take around 2 months to heal to normal just keep trying like i am and you will .good luck the fish is not in any pain with hole in the head so thats an good thing.
tim

 

[kayla]

i have an orange parrot fish that has hole in the head
has hole have slowed down and are not geting any bigger
i try heaps of things and every one said somthing different
i am still try to heal him and it has been 3 months i think
it is geting better,it is just the nitrates are to high and i don't over feed i do an 50% water change every 2 days ,i am 100%
sure he would be cured because nitrates are giving him 2nd infections of the disease.
this is what i tryed metro 400mg in an 20 litre tank every 2 days for 3 treatments i did 2 teatments after an week and when you treat the metro must do an 50% water change.
after you have treated the metro do another 50% change and use melafix until it heals and feed him food with heaps of vit c and raise the temperture to 27 a little salt will help.
it will take around 2 months to heal to normal just keep trying like i am and you will .good luck the fish is not in any pain with hole in the head so thats an good thing.
tim

I hope the HITH is already cured.

 

[SquirrelOsO]

im getting back into the cichlid craze again after 5 long years of being cichlidless. now im very afraid of hith disease, ive had cichlids with it before and it was horrible. no one died from it but it left them scarred and well just plain ugly. my plan is to keep the water very clean by doing once a month water changes of 50 percent, is this a bad idea? or is this the only way to prevent this disease? i keep reading there is no cure but one site i came across said that the prescription drug flagyl may work. i used to have flagyl in the house when my cats came down with giardia but i wonder how this drug could be given? mine was in a pill form, now i no oscars dont take pills lol
is there any way to prevent this disease from happening in the first place?

 

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

Ahhhh create a new thread! You'll get more responses if you just create a new thread with your own questions.


These threads have been laid to rest ages ago.... :duh:


-Diana

 

[ChileRelleno]

im getting back into the cichlid craze again after 5 long years of being cichlidless. now im very afraid of hith disease, ive had cichlids with it before and it was horrible. no one died from it but it left them scarred and well just plain ugly. my plan is to keep the water very clean by doing once a month water changes of 50 percent, is this a bad idea? or is this the only way to prevent this disease? i keep reading there is no cure but one site i came across said that the prescription drug flagyl may work. i used to have flagyl in the house when my cats came down with giardia but i wonder how this drug could be given? mine was in a pill form, now i no oscars dont take pills lol
is there any way to prevent this disease from happening in the first place?

Number one HITH cure (IMHO), this care is based on a
on a fish that already has a case of HITH.

(1)Water Quality
Get your water quality/chemistry perfect, NH3-0, NO2-0, NO3- 0/20ppm,
check your filters & clean'em if necessary (reduces alot of NO3), gravel vac & PWC, do small PWC's (25%) every other day.
Just about everyone will agree that bad water chemistry and HITH go together like apple pie -n- ice cream...

(2)Vitamin Supplements
Add liquid vitamin supplements to all food and vary their diet.
Soak or load everything you feed the fish with vitamins until cured and watch your water.
Vitamins that you add to your tanks water are worthless (IMO).
We use "Vita Chem", our fish get it regularly.
This particular brand is available at most on-line retailers and at better LFS's (We get ours at BigAls).
http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=27489;category_id=3781;pcid1=2911;pcid2=

(3) Supplementary treatment.
I would add a dose of salt to the tank, this helps lower stress, encourages slime-coat production and gill function amongst other things.
Also a dose of Melafix and Pimafix, these have been known to help healing.

(4)
Medicate,
Alot of folks blame Hexamita for HITH and thus treat for it with medications, BUT, studies have been done showing that Hex (and others) is/are a secondary infection/s (Whether or not Hexamita plays a key-role with HITH infections is controversial).
You need to do what "You" feel is right and correct after reseaching this for yourself, google "HITH causes prevention and cure" or some such, and visit Cichlid specific forums for more info.

Some folks also think that filter carbon plays a role with HITH...

It seems there are no absolutes as to the cause, but just like ICH there are many ways to treat it and proponenets/opponents of each treatment.

I say again though...
Perfect water quality and a varied nutritious diet supplemented with vitamins.

Here's a good article on HITH available here at Oscarfish,
http://www.oscarfish.com/cms_view_article.php?aid=3

This is how I treat/would treat my fish, this is my opinion, this is just my $0.02.

Preventive care for healthy fish,
(1) Test water chemistry atleast weekly,
I test bi-weekly.
Test NH3, NO2, NO3 are pretty much mandatory and testing PH, GH & KH regularly is a good thing too.
PWC's and GV's are best done weekly or as needed. Once a month WILL NOT suffice!

(2) Regularly supplement/soak food in a quality liquid vitamin, a quality multi-vitamin, not just some C.
I recommend atleast twice per week.

HTH.

 

[daveedka]

Not sure why this thread was ressurrected, but Gulp is no longer among the swimming.
dave