Flowerhorn marking or disease?
- Thread starter James.Lafontaine
- Start date
This is HLLE (Head and Lateral Line Erosion/ AKA hole in the head disease) a bacterial issue, that is symptomatic of some kind of stress, and too few water changes, lack off filter cleaning, and exacerbated by the nitrates resulting from lack of maintenance.
The size of tank may also contribute, in that nutrients such as nitrate build up faster in too small tanks.
Other contributors may be temp too hot or too cold, aggressive tank mates etc etc.
The size of tank may also contribute, in that nutrients such as nitrate build up faster in too small tanks.
Other contributors may be temp too hot or too cold, aggressive tank mates etc etc.
I’ve been doing daily 10% water changes, I tested the water, ph is normal and ammonia nitrite and nitrate are all 0, the temp is 81.1. Ive also bought high quality food instead of just feeding mysis. So hopefully that’s enough
When I lived in the U.S. I tried to keep nitrate at or below 10ppm, by doing every other day 40% water changes on 1,000 gallons of tanks.
I also used a lot of plants to help soak up nitrate (Pothos, Papayrus, etc).
A nitrate level in the 80ppm range is obviously (to me anyway) the reason for the chromic syndrome.
My first response would be to change enough water to reduce nitrate by half (maybe a 50-75% water change), then check and do another large water change the next day or day after, then in a couple days test, and maintain whatever water change schedule and volume is needed to keep nitrate levels (at minimum) below 20ppm.
Because nitrates are cumulative (and not reduced by filtration), a 10% per day water change is obviously not enough to put a dent in them in your tank, because metabolism constantly adds them back.
I also used a lot of plants to help soak up nitrate (Pothos, Papayrus, etc).
A nitrate level in the 80ppm range is obviously (to me anyway) the reason for the chromic syndrome.
My first response would be to change enough water to reduce nitrate by half (maybe a 50-75% water change), then check and do another large water change the next day or day after, then in a couple days test, and maintain whatever water change schedule and volume is needed to keep nitrate levels (at minimum) below 20ppm.
Because nitrates are cumulative (and not reduced by filtration), a 10% per day water change is obviously not enough to put a dent in them in your tank, because metabolism constantly adds them back.