Question about HITH..

[keaser06]

How fast does this disease show? I have an oscar (ozzy) who is around 6" long now. I got him at around 1" and he has been living in a 75g tank with 2 green severums and a sydontis cat since I got them all. Now my questions comes about because these fish get fed high quality foods every day and get a variety of foods. I also do a 20% water change twice a week on this tank. My filtration consists of an emperor 400 hob with bio wheels and the carbon was replaced with a secondary fiber pad. There is also a proclear aquatics wet/dry sump built for a 75gal tank running at somewhere near 400gph. Now with all that information my problem arose today as I have had no problems with this tank other than some mild algae growth recently which is why I cut the feeding from twice a day to once a day. Suddenly I noticed a small "hole" on ozzy's head. He is still very happy and eating just fine. I think maybe him and the sydontis may have had an "encounter" as when I drop the food for the cat in ozzy will usually try to get it. I know the sore wasn't there when I fed him tonight but I noticed the sore about 2 hours after feeding time. So is there a chance that the sore could be HITH and developed that fast or is it more likely that he may have had a confrontation with the catfish and got stuck? Sorry for writing a book but I wanted to give as much info as I could to get the best possible answer. Thanks in advance.

 

[Lupin]

Keaser, could you please post your food menu? If you are using commercial foods, please include ingredients and guaranteed analysis per food product you used. What is the feeding regimen?

Secondly, photos are extremely important. Without them, there is no way you will get a proper diagnosis. A misdiagnosis can cost your fish its life and your money and time. This is why I always encourage everyone to post photos if a health problem arises otherwise how will you expect others to properly help you and merely speculate and then recommend treatments right off the bat without looking for further queries?

Thirdly, what are your water parameters? Include ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. All three are extremely important variables to look into. What test kit do you use? What is the temperature?

You will find we have plenty of information in the sticky threads.

Hole in the Head
Synonyms:
Head and Lateral Line Erosion

(1)Water Quality
Get your water quality/chemistry perfect, NH3-0, NO2-0, NO3- 0/20ppm,
check your filters & clean'em if necessary (reduces alot of NO3), gravel vac & PWC, do small PWC's (25%) every other day.
Just about everyone will agree that bad water chemistry and HITH go together like apple pie -n- ice cream...

(2)Diet
Feed a well balanced and varied diet* (See below).

(3)Vitamin Supplements
Add liquid vitamin supplements to all food and vary their diet.
Soak or load everything you feed the fish with vitamins until cured and watch your water.
Vitamins that you add to your tanks water are worthless (IMO).
We use "Vita Chem", our fish get it regularly.
This particular brand is available at most on-line retailers and at better LFS's (We get ours at BigAls).
http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/...d1=2911;pcid2=

(4) Supplementary treatment
I would add a dose of salt to the tank, this encourages slime-coat production and gill function amongst other things.
Also a dose of Melafix and Pimafix, these have been known to help healing and prevent secondary infection.

(5)Temperature
Gradually increase your tanks temp to aprox 80'-82'f.
Increased temp increases metabolism which can influence the immune system thus possibly speed healing.

(6)Medicate
Alot of folks blame Hexamita for HITH and thus treat for it with medications, BUT, studies have been done showing that Hex (and others) is/are a secondary infection/s (Whether or not Hexamita plays a key-role with HITH infections is controversial).
You need to do what "You" feel is right and correct after researching this for yourself, google "HITH causes prevention and cure" or some such, and visit Cichlid specific forums for more info.

Some folks also think that filter carbon dust plays a role...
Carbons role is controversial.

Some folks also think that stray electrical currents are to blame...
Stray electrical currents role is controversial at best.

It seems there are no absolutes as to the cause, but just like ICH there are many ways to treat it and proponenets/opponents of each treatment.

I say again though...
Perfect water quality and a varied nutritious diet supplemented with vitamins.

Here's a good article on HITH available here at Oscarfish,
http://www.oscarfish.com/cms_view_article.php?aid=3
For more simply Google, 'HITH'.

DIET
A quality cichlid pellet or stick should make up 75-80% of your O's diet.
These are my primary foods...
Pellets, Carnivore sticks, freezedried krill, algae wafers, fresh nightcrawlers, fresh/freezedried earthworm (Any worms are great foods!), fresh crickets, fresh mealworms, almost any insect I catch (Insects from outside do pose a risk of insecticides which can harm your fish, be careful.).

I rotate store bought nightcrawlers, crickets and mealworms about monthly on the menu.
I feed my 10"+ O probably 4-6 large crickets, 6-10 mealworms or 1-2 large nightcrawlers per feeding and he'll get'em every 2-3 days.

I feed or have fed my O all of these foods...
Raw/cooked shrimp, small bits of raw cut fish, beefheart, bitesize bits of fruits-n-veggies (zucchini, carrot, shelled peas, shelled corn, apple, orange, pear, papya and etc...), small tree/grass frogs (NO toads, and know which frog species your feeding as some can be toxic too.) and properly quarantined or raised feeder fish, these should be fed sparingly and rotated as snacks or dessert.
Do not feed unquarantined feeder fish from LFS/LPS, do not feed mammalian flesh (Animal fats from mammals and fowl are very bad for most fish).

I supplement his nutrition by soaking his pellets 4-5 times a week in a liquid vitamin.
I use Vita-Chem, available at some LFS's and on-line retailers, I get mine at BigAl's, http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...mfreshwater4oz
Alot of different types and brands are used, Liquid Centrum for example, but you could reasonably use any quality L. vitamin.

Authors:
ChileRelleno

Discussion Thread:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21851

 

[keaser06]

I did read the sticky before I posted which is why I gave the information I could based on the sticky. I use the Jungle 5 test kits. Nitrate is usually right around 20ppm, Nitrite is 0, there is no ammonia test on my kits. I feed once daily 6 days a week. Two of my feeding days they are fed frozen mysis shrimp, bloodworms, and silversides. The other four days they get Hikari Food Sticks, Hikari Cichlid Gold, and Wardley Shrimp Pellets. My lights are on a timer so I will try to take some pics later when they come on. I have never dealt with HITH myself but this small hole looks like it could be a puncture wound, as in my catfish attacked him with one of his fins.

 

[keaser06]

When my lights came on today and got to further examine ozzy I am almost 100% certain he has HITH. Now with the quality foods and regular water changes already being part of my regimen what else can I do to try and combat this disease?

 

[keaser06]

After loads and loads of research all I could find was to up my water changes so I will now begin a regimen of a 20% water change every 2-3 days. I also found that a high vitamin food source is needed to help cure this disease. I thought I was feeding well enough as is but apparently not. So I have picked up a multivitamin that will be added to ozzy's regular feeding schedule. So basically other than increasing my water changes and adding the vitamins to his diet is there anything else that can be recommended to help ozzy get through this?