You misunderstood me. I did not own your species, but jurupari and surinamenses from similar black water. They did not die from hith, but died with hith in old age. HITH is not fatal, just disfiguring.
Is this hole in the head?
- Thread starter FishKing5
- Start date
Well thanks for the useful information. I'm currently treating the fish for HITH with metro and feeding NLS hex guard. I've heard great things about treating with metro so am hoping for the best. It's not super severe and the fish are all eating well and seem happy but definitely want to get rid of it for good.
And I understand that geos come from soft water but since they've been raised in normal tap water their whole lives, they can flourish just fine. I mean people, such as myself grow and raise discus very successfully in normal tap water. Of course they thrive in softer water but normal tap works fine as well.
Discus can be raised (but not bred) in hard tap water but the water must be kept pristine by doing daily water change, warm, and avoid substrate or mixing with other species to minimize bacterial count. Discus are so weak that short of providing those ideal conditions, they are vulnerable to HITH and a range of other infectious diseases, You don't see holes easily in discus because their head is small and under less than ideal conditions, they will never reach full size to become visible.
If you can provide the same ideal conditions for your Geos as discus, they will likely thrive in your hard tap water. What I am trying to say is that treating your Geos with mediation but not changing the fundamentals that caused the HITH is not likely to be effective.
I also understand the basics to discus breeding. I bred Discus for several years with a soft RO/Tap water mix. I also raised my Discus in aged tap water to eliminate PH spikes doing daily water changes so I do understand the work involved in keeping and raising Discus successfully. Geos are a bit more hardy than Discus though. But I do understand your point here and I'm pretty sure I know where I went wrong. I had left the hobby for a few years and setup a new tank a few months ago and just added instant cycle live bacteria to my tank and filters and added my fish shortly after that so they went through ammonia spikes and all that sort of stuff. NOT AN IDEAL WAY TO START THINGS OFF, I KNOW...The filter and tank is fully cycled now after about a month and during this time they have been moved to 3 different tanks now since I upgraded them to a 90 and then shortly after to a 125 where they will be housed until later next year so they have been through some stressful times but have always eaten very well and are very active so I didn't think much about it until I have now learned more about what stress can do to fish which brings me to my next point. From what I have gathered, HITH is a parasite that seems to be in most of all fish but fishes immune system, if kept strong, can fight off the parasite and keep it from doing anything to them. But when stressed their immune system goes to **** and the parasite can then take action. From what I have learned from some very reputable sources, treating HITH with metro and feeding with the NLS Hex Guard will kill the parasite for good along with anything else and will stop it from ever coming back. I know HITH is a very mysterious and has been an ongoing study, but people seem to have great success treating and getting rid of HITH with the metro treatment. I feel pretty good about getting rid of it and preventing it from ever coming back, especially since my fish will not be moved around for quite a while now. It also seems to be better to do a lot of smaller water changes (30-40%) daily or bi daily rather then large water changes so you don't change up the water chemistry so much especially since its coming straight from my tap. I do enjoy talking about this so feel free to provide more of your thoughts. Thanks.
So I'm pretty sure I found the answer to my fish getting HITH. I looked into the quality of my water at my house and found out my damn water softener wasn't working resulting in very hard water. I now have it fixed and can tell a big difference in the water coming out of the tap. I am on my last day of treatment with metro. I'm also adding non iodized salt for a few more days to help with the healing. It seems water quality is the biggest reason for this disease so I'm very much hoping the water quality from my water softener not working was the issue. The HITH doesn't seem to be getting any worse but haven't noticed any big changes in the pits going away. Will be doing a larger water change today with my last treatment.
