Worsening HITH

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Ok, just curious, as I can't recommend that NLS Hex formula enough. There's got to be a way that you can stuff it into a hollowed out shrimp, or fish? In order to completely get rid of hex, and to keep it from ever returning, you have to wipe out the parasite that's responsible, which from what we know from the most current research in tropical fish, is Spironucleus vortens. I don't think that Epsom salt is going to do the trick as the pathogen has become systemic, and is now most likely in the blood, organs, and tissue of your fish. (that's where the "holes" come from) You need to kill the parasite load completely, and your best bet in doing that is metronidazole.
 
I agree with RD. Hex shield works, I can attest to that.

However as an alternative you can use Metroplex as a food soak or use a syringe to deliver it directly down the fish's throat. Soaking food is admittedly easier. Use some pellets and soak them in a ten gallon dose using just enough water to wet the pellets. After about 15 mins or so depending on the consistency of the pellets used, dump the whole thing directly into the tank. Get the fish good and hungry first so it attacks the food immediately.

BTW Vitamin C helps recovery so don't dismiss it.
 
I totally agree with Tom about the healing properties of vitamin c - but like most nutrients it's far more ideal for the fish to be absorbing vitamins via the gut, than via the water. This isn't an issue if you can get pellets into your fish - especially a food such as NLS as it contains a mega dose of all of the essential vitamins & minerals, including vitamin c. Without discussing proprietary information, the vitamin c levels in all NLS products is one of the highest of any food currently on the market.

Even if you have to make mush & force feed presoaked food, for the best of both worlds (medication & overall nutrients) if at all possible use the NLS Hex Shield formula.
 
I actually own the NLS Hex formula. I have started feeding him HEX yesterday and will continue to do so daily for the next week or so. In order to get him to eat the HEX pellets considering they are so small, I actually went and bought scallops.

Scallops are not the typical food, but they seem the easiest to cram with pellets and not fall apart. I was trying tilapia but I would find the fish was not thick enough so the pellets would either come out or in many cases the fish would fall apart when he bit it and the pellets would scatter in the water. Hopefully scallops are not detrimental to him.

Thank you for all the input and I will keep you posted.
 
He refused to eat the scallops last night, and this morning I found that he threw up the scallops from Monday night. Hopefully he got that dose of HEX. I need to figure out another way to get the pellets into him. I might have to do smaller pieces of tilapia that he swallows whole with just a couple pellets of HEX.

Is there any guidance on how much of HEX he needs to take in at 10in for it to be effective? All the bottle says is feed 2 times a day for 3 days as much as they will consume in less than 1 minute. That is just not going to work with this guy as piranhas eat infrequently and he will ignore small pellets by themselves.
 
Metro applied via feed is typically calculated based on the fishes weight.


Bassleer (1983) recommended metronidazole (Flagyl) as an effective drug for the treatment of hexamitiasis and spironucleosis with a dosage of 500 mg/100 l of water for a 3-day period. Stoskopf (1988) recommended 10 mg of metronidazole mixed into 1.0 g of food given to fish for 5 days.

Dr. Edward J Noga suggests

1. Bath

a. Add 19mg/gallon and treat for 3 hours. Repeat every other day for 3 treatments.

2. Prolonged Immersion

a. Add 25mg/gallon and treat once daily for a total of 3 times.
b. Add 95mg/gallon and treat every other day for three days.

3. via feed

25 mg/Kg of body weight/day for 5 to 10 days, or 100 mg/kg of body weight for 3 days. Retreat once if required.



Dr. Ruth Francis-Floyd et al recommend feeding 50 mg/kg of body weight for 5 consecutive days, or via a bath at a concentration of 5 mg/l every other day for a total of 3 treatments.


HTH
 
He is in a 180g tank so treatment via water is not happening. I did that once when he was in a 75g and it just costs too much. Will have to do it via food. He really likes the large NLS pellets so if I cannot get him to take HEX, I will just soak NLS with metro+ like I did the last time.

What size pellets do you guys use on your fish? Are 10mm too large for a 10-11in fish? The 3mm are too small for him to notice.
 
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