hypselecara temporalis

[kappa87]

Hello All,

This is my first post so forgive me if this is not under the right forum. Anyway, I have a 72Gallon Tank with 3 8" Oscars, 1 7" Dempsey, and 2 7" Texas Cichlids. The Oscars have acquired hole in the head. Initially, I thought that it was due to overcrowding but, I also have a 55 Gallon tank with 6 2" hypselecara temporalis. Yesterday, I discovered that they were getting the disease also. I pretty much do weekly water changes of about 40% on the tanks. I have a Fluval 204 on the 55G and I feed them 3 or 4 times daily.

My only assumption here is that I may be overfeeding as my regime on the tank cleaning is pretty consistent??? Any ideas?

Thanks....

[Lisachromis]

What do you feed your cichlids? I have heard possibilities that HITH can be related to diet as well....

[kappa87]

I feed the chocolates a combination of: Cichlid Deluxe from Ocean Nutrition, New Life Spectrum Jumbo Fish formula, occasionally frozen krill and beefheart. I feed them mostly the pellets which claim to have immune boosters and a balanced diet???

I also have been treating the tank with salt after the water changes???

They don't seem to be overfed as they readily consume the portions in a couple of minutes. So, I am wondering if they're producing enough wastes in one weeks time to cause this problem?

[Lisachromis]

Sounds like a pretty decent diet to me. Anyone else have any other ideas?

[Juan Artigas]

I personally think "Hole in the head" is mostly water quality related. It is difficult to give a solid opinion on the precise cause of this as I am not seeing the aquarium, but I would primarily seek into small pieces of food not being eaten and rot hidden in the aquarium. It sounds like a possible cause of this happening. The fact that HITH occurs in two tanks instead of one, more than a contagious event, make me suspect of a bad keeping strategy.

Cheers

[newmanl]

Hi Kappa87,

I think it is important to determine exactly the type of "hole in the head" condition your fish have. If it is the type that manifests itself as tiny volcanoes on the head of the affected fish and you can see puss-like exudate, then it has very different implications than if you are seeing neuromast pitting - commonly referred to as hole in the head. The former is thought to be caused by a flagellated protozoan and the latter, is a physiological response to a stressor - usually something environmental. Given the conditions you describe, I'd suggest that your fish are being affected by neuromast pitting.

I'd further suggest that the reason for the pitting is that your 72 gallon tank is severely over-crowded. Given the physical space that such a tank provides, the tank could be considered fully stocked with just the three oscars. Also, feeding 3-4 times a day is excessive for adult cichlids. Finally, while it is good you have a regular maintenance routine, 40% water changes are not enough to prevent the build-up of waste products.

It is not surprising that you see pitting in the oscars and the chocolate cichlids, the two species are arguably the more sensitive in the collection you have. To arrest the condition, I would suggest you reduce the population in the 72 gallon down to three fish. Then, reduce the feeding to only 1-2 times a day and increase the water changes to 60-80% every time. Same treatment for the chocolates in the 55 - except reducing the number of fish - that may come a little later.

Also, while some swear by it, and some swear at it, I do not recommend that fish be fed beefheart. It contains fats that can not be utilised by fish. It therefore leads to fat storage issues, liver dysfunction and the excretion of wastes with very high nitorgen content - lots of food for the nitrifying bacteria to convert into nitrate. Other than that, the diet sounds great.

Lastly, healing the damage caused by pitting can sometimes be very difficult. However, with improved water quality and the addition of some appropriate live foods (such as small crickets) you might be able to heal the oscars and chocolates.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Lee

[pdovii]

Reduce your feeding of cichlids to about two to three times a day with pellets and sticks as much as they can finish within about three minutes. Avoid live food. Change about 25% of the water weekly. That should prevent the HITH disease.

pdovii

[salvini]

I would agree with that, 60-80% water changes every week isn't going to do the fishes stress levels any good, which is only going to make it sicker, not to mention what it'll do to your filters.