So frustrated... HITH

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S

sbrady5pts

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Jun 7, 2008
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long island
I have a few 2" Festae that seem to be showing early signs of HITH. AT only 2"!!!!!!! Everything else in the tank is great, but I think I see minor holes. Over my years of keeping cichlids, I seem to also have a fish or 2 with this problem.

And everyone I ask tells me something different. I hear it is food, so I only feed NLS & Krill. I hear it is Electricty, so I ground all of my tanks. I hear it is water so i Do water changes like a maniac. I just heard last weekend that it is in the gravel, and I need to take all gravel out every couple weeks and wash it!!


Who has time for all of this? As is I want to hire someone to clean my tanks

So does anyone know for sure what causes it? is there finally a definite cause? Is it curable? This is driving me MAD
 
I've had the same substrate in some of my tanks for over 25 years, only gravel cleaning I've gone is with a gravel vac, and I don't have HITH in my tanks.
The only time I did, was back in the 60s when I fed too much protein, used carbon in my filters constantly, and only did sporadic water changes.
 
That's because there is no one single thing that will always be the cause of HITH.
 
There are many theories, some proven, some not, as to what causes HITH in fish. Nutrient deficiencies, carbon dust, spironucleus vortens, etc, so each case of HITH has to be viewed differently depending on the fish, and their conditions.

If you feed NLS as a staple you can remove nutrient deficiencies as a cause. If your water quality is pristine then that too can be removed from the equation. Spironucleus is very common in freshwater fish and typically only surfaces during times of stress, and is impossible to see with the naked eye. A simple, cheap solution to spironucleus can be found in the following link. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...879-Treating-quot-Bloat-quot-aka-Spironucleus

HTH
 
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