hole in the head

missfish

G day,
I have just noticed that my discus has hole in the head. It is only a few spots at the moment. I have uped my regime of water changes to get my water quality as close to perfect as possible, just wondering if anyone has any other tips they can give me. at the present he is housed in only a 30inch aquarium, i do a water change every week, about 25% nitrates are at 20 and ph is rather low at 6. I plan to move him to a 4 foot aquarium when it has finished cycling. Thomas (the discus) is about 10cm in diameter.

Thanks heaps

Tommy Gun

Hey missfish - sorry to hear about your troubles.

Well, you are definitely starting off on the right foot by naming your fish a very cool name!!!

What are you feeding your fish? I believe one major contributing factor of Hole-in-the-head (HTH) is poor diet so this is also something to look at above and beyond water quality.

Have you noticed any other symptoms with this fish? For example, is it still eating and acting differently?...does it spend most of its time in one area of your tank?....does it seem to spend a lot of time looking downwards?...does it swim backwards alot or anything like that?

missfish

G day,

Thomas is still the most greedy fish in the tank. He is up at the top every morning waiting to be fed!. I give the tank premium tropical flakes every second morning, with frozen bloodworms the other days. I drop a bottom feeder tablet into the tanks for the sterbi catfish and a spirulina tablet for the gold sailfin pleco. (who i am minding for someone but who i think may be starting to suck the slime of thomas) I don't have any alage in the tank so i try to keep him satisfied. Thomas when he has eaten all the flakes (which dosn't take long) then trys to scoff whatever is left of the bottom feeder tablet. I have noticed however that he has been hiding more when it is not feed time. I worry about him because he is on his own and he should have a few mates. Other than that he behaves the same. I can't wait to get him into the bigger tank, but am nervous at the same time.

Thanks heaps

Yeah the bus driver named him when i showed him on the way home he was called thomas too!! very cool name!

missfish.

Tommy Gun

I haven't kept any discus yet, but I vaguely remember reading that too many bloodworms could be problematic for some or all discus due to their digestion tactics. Hopefully someone else can clear that up though. In the meantime, I do know that offering more vegitable matter can help stop and/or reverse HTH

Can you describe exactly what you are seeing on your fish...or better yet, post a picture?

Does it look like your fish's "forehead" is changing colors?

The reason I am asking these questions is because what you are seeing could be Hexamita versus HTH. As I understand it, Hexamita appears to be very similar to HTH and the fish often act/eat as they normally would. Since it sounds like discus might be more prone to this issue than most other fish are, you might want to get ready to treat for this internal parasite. Of course, I am not sure if that is or is not the case with your fish, but definitely something to look at.

missfish

G day,

Thanks for your concern, I don't have a good enough camera to get a clear picture, they really are small. (you can see him in my signature picture) They just look like a few little pin pricks above his nostrils. They look like (and this may be abit gross) when you pop a big blackhead and you can see the empty pore. There is no mucus coming out of them or anything. I can't see any extending along his lateral line. They are really small and i only first noticed them because the window was left open and the sun shone into the aquraium. you really have to look to see them. I have looked up pictures of hole in the head on the internet and could only find extreme cases.I droped into the LFS and they reckon that hole in the head caused by a bacteria is really uncommon, and is usually only found in wild caught discus. They suggested extra water changes which I plan to do. I will also swap the regular flakes for spirulina flakes at a reduced rate, just in case i was overfeeding, but i don't think i was. The whole tank can go on a diet! oh, and i will forget the bloodworms for a while. Poor old thomas, he really loves those bloodworms!

Thanks heaps for all your help.

Missfish.

missfish

G day,

Things are staring to go downhill rather quickly. since my last post i have added another 3 discus to the four foot tank that i believe had finished cycling, no ammoia and no nitrites with nitrates at 5. I also added thomas my pride and joy. All four discus are now very dark with fins clamped tight. They do still move about the tank a bit at least the new three do but thomas is very still. i am so worried. i have done a 25% water change, ph is at 6.4. I am removing all the other fish in this tank to another, these are assorted tetras in case this is what is spooking them. The three new discus are smaller than thomas and seem to be doing better than him. I spent about 2 hours slowly accliamtising them to the new tank including thomas who i also bagged up. any suggestions as to what i should do? Any helpful advice will be greatly appreciated. i really love that fish. hes got me so worried.

missfish

Tommy Gun

Hmmmm, I know that discus can be somewhat more challenging than most FW fish so maybe some of the usual rules don't apply as much or in the same way. I have read that your pH sounds to be in a good range as far as helping to prevent some problems, but I would make sure that it is staying that way all day and all night. Have you done anything to change your pH such as adding a product to lower it?

What are you feeding your discus?

Can you list your water parameters?

cassb

First, one thing you can do right away is make sure your water temperature is at *least* 84F -- it can be up to 90F even, especially when they're sick or breeding. That usually perks them up at least a little. Don't add any other chemicals to the water, it sounds like you have naturally soft, acidic water already, which is perfect for discus.

What is the temp of your discus tank? Raise it if you need to.

missfish

G day,

the parameters are:

ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 5
temp 29 degrees celcius
Ph 6.8
general hardness 60 ppm

They are funny, one minute they will be very dark, the next bright and light. The two smallest seem to be coping better they stay in the open more. the other two which are bigger stay dark alot, and tend to pick on each other.
The pet shop people reckon i need to just give them time. which i guess is all i can do except maybe raisng the temp. they are such finiky things. Thomas the orginal discus was so much better in the smaller tank, i can't understand why a bigger tank is stressing him so much.(should i move him back?) i haven't done anything differernt with this tank. except of course introducing the other discus. I just hope they settle down. Thanks heaps for all your suggestions.

missfish

I really do love them! They are such georgous creatures when they are happy and healthy. amazing.

cassb

Oh, celcius -- um... take 29, divide by 9, carry the 1, subtract 32, add the square root of -1... hm, snap your fingers and stand on one foot... um, take the inverse of 1.8, add some diatom powder...got it. 84.2F

So, I would raise the temp to 86-88F, which I guess would be 30-31C? That should make them a little more active. I love discus -- I may start a discus/cardinal tetra tank at some point after I get my feet wet again with this Amazon tank I'm doing.

I'll attach a couple pictures of my discus from 1999-2000. I haven't had any since then. I also put a bunch of pictures into the Member Pictures section in case you're interested.

Bryan

Attached Images

	2000-11-13.jpg (165.9 KB, 7 views)
	2000-11-22.jpg (85.1 KB, 7 views)