HITH + metro question (umbee related)

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Thats a good question. Some fish are more temperamental I guess. All of my Amphs got it (5 fish), the Dempsey, Festae, and Carpintis (3). But my Fire mouths, jags, Cons, and Grammode showed nothing. Now I dont know for sure cause I noticed and changed my ways early in the HITH process. I can almost guarantee if I had let it go, the rest would eventually start to show.

Some fish are just more temperamental to water conditions.
 
Well I've treated for 4 days now and I have enough meds for another day but the holes in her head seem to be just getting worse. She doesn't really act any different than normal, a little more skittish but that's kind of expected with as often as I've been messing with her water. I don't know what else I can do.

On a side note I bought some NLS today and she ate a couple pellets so at least she's still eating.
 
Ed ....... seeing as you are from NY, I'm surprised that you wouldn't be aware about lead being found in tap water. NYC has been fighting high lead levels for years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/nyregion/05lead.html
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/lead_index.shtml

Many older homes in North America have lead supply lines to the house, and/or lead solder used in many (pre-1987) homes. And many natural bodies of water will contain elements such as iron, lead, copper, aluminum, arsenic, etc. As long as the numbers are in the low ppm, or for some elements the low ppb, which is usually the case, these elements are not going to cause any issues with the vast majority of tropical fish.

My tap water originates in the headwaters of the Rocky Mountains, and contains all of the elements listed above. Never once have I had any issues with HITH, or any other type of autoimmune disease. Best course of action is to run your taps for several minutes before filling your tank, same as they advise with drinking water. Flush the lines to remove or at least greatly reduce any potential build up of metals etc in your water line. If one has a problem with an older hot water tank, that can be resolved by replacing the hot water tank. At lower levels some of these elements can also be removed by using a water conditioner such as Prime. According to Dr. Greg Morin, the President/CEO of Seachem, Prime will precipitate many of these metals, such as lead, zinc, mercury, copper etc.




Snake_Eyes .......... not sure what else can be added here, your fish appears to have an advanced case of HITH & may or may not come around. Sounds to me like you are doing all that you can. Good luck.
 
Thanks, I just wish I knew what caused it and why it advanced so fast.

It makes me feel sick every time I think of it especially since it's on a fish that I'll probably never get the chance of owning again. :(
 
Well it's been a month now so I thought I'd give an update on his condition. The HITH finally stopped spreading and now only the four deep pits remain, these don't seem to heal. :irked: I've been keeping his nitrates at around 10ppm and for now is being fed only Hikari Bio-Gold and NLS Thera+A. He acts perfectly normal, eats like a pig and has even grown some! :)
 
good to hear your fish is doing better, and yeah with HITH pits, especially the deeper ones it can take a while for them to heal properly, some will even scar but the disease is gona so no new ones will appear so thats what is important! this really has to be the fastest progressing case of HITH i have ever seen so your lucky it is healing up so well :)
 
Thanks, I'm really happy that he's making a recovery but it's sad that he'll most likely have some permanent scarring from it, it could be a lot worse though.
 
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