White secret on head, looks as but is NOT ICH

[a77ila]

A couple of days ago something white started appearing on my angelfishes, and as it manifested as white spots I thought it was ich at first (which I have encountered and treated several times). However, after unsuccessful treatment against ich I noticed these distinct differences between this case and ich I have seen before:

- appears ONLY around the eyes (does not appear on fins or the body even in the advanced stages of the disease), above the eye at first and below the eyes as well when in final stages
- it is SYMMETRICAL on both sides of the head (!!!) - this is the most peculiar thing
- the number of spots does NOT change
- it appears in the SAME shape and layout on ALL infected fish (~12 fish so far)
- the spots are not actually spots (at least while there is no secondary infection), but rather as something being secreted or grown from the inside (it can grow to 4-5mm in length)
- the fins are in EXCELLENT shape, no excess mucus
- does not change position (e.g. it does not fall of and reappear someplace else)
- does not react to methyl-blue/ich cures



High(er) res photos can be found at
http://www.prometheus.org.yu/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=2798

If anybody has any idea what this is I'd be grateful, it's very demoralizing to watch the fish die one by one because I don't know what to treat them for

 

[Pablo]

looks like some sort of fungus... You can try some Methylene Blue works miracles for Fungus or any other fungus treatment ... dont forget to take out the Carbon filter!

 

[a77ila]

looks like some sort of fungus... You can try some Methylene Blue works miracles for Fungus or any other fungus treatment ... dont forget to take out the Carbon filter!

It's not (common) fungus, at least in origin I did try methilene blue, but there was no reaction even with high concentration (also tried malachite green and xantakridin). The fungish (patchy/cloudy) look is most likely by a secondary infection (e.g. it grows ON the ooze/white spot, but is not part of it, white methylene blue cleans it, as the white spot continues oozing, but it comes back to it pretty soon ). The KEY I think is that the spots are symmetrical on both sides on all of the infected fish. This rules out most parasites and the only thing I can think of is a sort of infection that attacks something very specific in the fish, unfortunately I do not know fish anatomy well enough to tell what

 

[Emg]

Hole in the head disease ???

I don't know, just a guess.....because if it's in the same place in all your fish it has to have something to do with thier physical makeup. I know fish have sensory pits or some such thing all over thier bodies....and I imagine all fish have these located in similar areas of thier bodies.

That doesn't exactly help you figure out what it is or how to treat it...but it's a start I guess :huh:

 

[Roan Art]

Good point, Emg.

a77ila, this might be something particular to angelfishes. There are probably some sites out there like this one, that are devoted to angels. If you don't get a viable answer here, do a search on Yahoo! and see what you can come up with.

Roan

 

[Ghost_knife]

my columbian sharks got that...and died. Good luck

 

[reziztor]

Sounds like HOLE IN THE HEAD...

http://www.angelfish.net/yabbse/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=1449

 

[Z1P2]

Well, it's probably not Argulus, or Ergasilus since it's uniform on both sides and all fish. It could possibly be Head and Lateral Line Disease. What do you normally feed them, and do you ever vary their diet?

Are their eyes bulging out? If so it could also maybe be pop-eye. Any way you could get a pic and post it?

 

[a77ila]

You have the images attached to the first post (I can't get it to include the images, it just says attachment) ! And a link to a gallery as well to see the higher resolution versions

I guess you could say the diet is varied, they are getting all sorts of food (since there are other fish in the tank), ranging from daphnia thru tubifex to those simple pressed little colored plates (whatever they're called in English) when I run out of regular food. I know that HITH is usually a feeding disorder but is it contagious - my angels seem to get it far to simultaneously (but then again it might just be that the terrain was ready waiting for the hexamite bacteria to wreak havoc). I did not notice eye bulging...

The other board reference says hole-in-the head, I will try and confirm it if I can get them to look at the images.

 

[a77ila]

It seems to be HITH with a fungal (hexamite) infection afterall, here is an image which shows is how it looked on my fish in it's early stages