Possible HITH? Fungus? Infection?

[>:(]

Ok, so I went to feed my oscar this morning, and I noticed he had a white patch on his lip and lower jaw, which appeared overnight. This is the same fish I saved a while back, and I've grown pretty attached to it. The thing is, the patches are kind of raised and iridescent. When I first saw it, I panicked and thought "oh no, it's HITH," but I read up on it and it seems there should be some pitting, but I suppose this could be the early stages. Aside from the whitish patches, he also has some spots on his fins where he's losing color. They look like little holes, but there's actually just transparent skin there.

I've been treating with melafix, because he did have a scrape on his head from hitting the hood when he wanted me to feed him the other day. I suppose he could I have scraped himself again, but I don't know.

Anyway, my ph is 7.2, my ammonia is 0, my nitrites are kind of high at 0.1, but today is water change day (not just my weekly PW, but my monthly big one). I also lost my nitrate test, so I'm off to petco later, guess I could pick up some pimafix too, just in case.

Here are some pics. What do you think? Can I make him better?

 

[>:(]

Can't edit the post for some reason, but apparently, the water change isn't going to happen today as some idiot in the apartment behind ours busted a pipe and the water is off indefinitely. Dammit, things are never easy, are they?

 

[>:(]

I went and got all the distilled water the drugstore had (10 gallons) and did a small water change with it. I also got some pima fix, and it made him develop black dots. Although, it did seem to start healing up the stuff on his mouth. Overall, I don't know if he's better or worse. Maybe I'm more worried than I should be.

I picked up a new test kit. Revised parameters are: ammonia 0, nitrate 20 ppm, nitrite less than .5 ppm, hardness 150, chlorine 0, alkalinity 100, ph 7.2.
More pics. Plus, is it just me or is there something weird about my bp's gill plates? They've always been like that and they bug me because the other blood parrot isn't like that.

 

[2004exrider]

IMO it looks like he may have just gotten startled at night and went thrashing through the tank, it doesnt look like hole in the head. I don't think its fungus but im no professional by far. But the meds and water changes arent going to do any bad, so id keep doing them for a while and keep an eye out for any other changes. Good luck!

Jimmy

 

[>:(]

Thanks for the response. My God, you have no idea how much better it makes me feel. I thought I did it to him somehow. I also noticed that hydra have somehow found their way back into my tank after I killed them off once. This is ten times worse, too, you can see how many are on just one plant in the first picture on my third post. I hate them. So I added a little coppersafe, just enough to kill off those icky hydra.

 

[vfc]

It might be a bacteria infection. I just lost four African Cichlids to a similar disease. It starts with white patches around the mouth, then gray patches on the fins. I had initially treated (incorrectly) with an anti-fungal medication. Fortunately I switched over to Furan-2 (gram negative & positive bacteria medication). Halted the progression of the disease in one day. I am now treating with Melafix to heal the open sores.

 

[>:(]

That sounds terrible, your poor little guys. I hope you were able to save most of them.

Unfortunately, I'm now 100% positive he's hurting himself by trying to fit into places between rocks that he's too big to go into. I saw him scrape himself up wedged under a piece of rock this morning before he knew I was there. I never thought he'd even be able to get under the thing the way he did. He's a curious little guy, but I'm taking out all the drift wood and most of the slate in my tank today, so he'll just have to deal. Hopefully, my blood parrots and albino red-fin shark will still have enough places to hide.

I'll continue with pimafx and melafix, and see how it goes.