Help! Pike cichlid with HITH

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Willy G.

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 6, 2007
11
0
0
Boston
I posted this in the crenicichla forum, but didn't get many hits so I figured i'd try here..

Help! My old male pike (c. frenata, around 9 inches, had him for three years) has been battling hole in the head for the past few months. After doing lots of water changes, altering his diet from just krill to a combo of krill, pellets, and earthworms and using a vitamin supplement, it subsided a bit, and he started behaving more normally, but in the past week or so it's really come back hard. Lots of pitting on the head and along the lateral line, and some fin rot. He won't eat anything and is just sitting immobile, most unlike him. I tried feeding him some krill and pellets, but no dice. Also tried feeding him earthworms, but he wouldn't even touch those as they wiggled around in front of his nose, and my male salvini eventually came over and slurped em up...

Any advice? I've read the stickied HITH article and tried everything I can think of, but am not seeing any improvement. This fish is part of a breeding pair and I really want to do everything I can to nurse him back to health.

Thanks much,

Willy.

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When my festae got HITH, I removed the carbon from my filters and got a UV sterilizer and it went away. Although I think its never been proven, some people think carbon might induce HITH. Either way, its not really necessary and I'm glad I got rid of it. You might want to do the same if you use it in your filters. A UV sterilizer can cost quite a bit of money, but I'm pretty sure it helped my fish recover from HITH. You did the right thing in changing the diet and maintaining water changes. I added a vitamin called liquid centrum to my food. That might have helped too. Give it time. Make sure your tank is as stress free as possible. My HITH cleared up extremely slowly. Thats a gorgeous pike by the way. I hope he recovers.
 
Ha hopefully it won't come to that. If "euthanization" does eventually become necessary i've got some fish tranquilizing stuff at a lab I work at that will put him to sleep;).

I'll definitely try tackling my Eheim and get the carbon outta there. Can't hurt...

Well, what's weird is that I have two other cichlids in this tank, the female c. frenata and a male salvini, and both are in terrific shape and show no signs of HITH. Any idea why just one fish would suffer from this?
 
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