HITH contagious?

[toehead11183]

How contagiuos is HITH? My wifes yellow tail acei is ate up with HITH but all the others are doing fine. He seems do be getting worse and Id like to leave him in there until he gets better or dies. My wife is worried about the other 7 african cichlids and the loach. I've added salt, raised the temp to 86* and added API general cure. the tank has been set up for 5 days so i know the water isnt dirty.
Q: leave him in and hope for the best or send him to heaven to save the others?

 

[ewurm]

Not a lot of good scientific info on this disease. I believe it to be a combination of diet and water quality based on what I have read. If that is actually the case, then it wouldn't be contagious.

 

[toehead11183]

good. a good portion of his head is eroded and its getting worse. As stated above, the temp is 86* and salt is at 16% according to the API salt test. i used API general cure. will any of this affect the Botia modesta, Mr Loach Expert?

 

[Lupin]

HITH is perceived to be either deficiency or a case of intestinal parasites. If it's the latter, chances are they may spread to your other fish. You will have to vacuum all the organic materials accumulating in your tank thoroughly as a precaution.

I have not seen cases of loaches suffering from HITH. A lot of this is associated among cichlids.

 

[toehead11183]

well the YT Acei started swimming on his side and upside down so i pulled him out and sent him to fishy heaven

 

[guppy]

Most loachs are fairly resistant to hith but it is somewhat contagious, water conditions and diet also play a part but hexamita is present in hith wounds and without it hith doesn't seem to develope. Please refer to the sticky on hith in this forum.