Hole In The Head?

no problem. Hope Alan keeps improving

Actually a couple of hours I noticed something sticking out of the side of his head, between his jaw and his gills. It was about 3mm long and almost looked orangey in colour. I couldn't tell whether it was moving as every time Alan moved it moved with the water flow. He does have some orange colouring there and I wondered whether maybe it was old tissue sloughing away as its gone now. I couldn't see any more and I still can't. Do you know of anything it could have been? I hope it's nothing nasty

On the plus side, Alan has been more active the last two days than he has in a while. Although he was active before I've noticed a change. He's swimming and moving more quickly and whizzes straight to the front of the tank now when I go over. He was still coming over before that but is much quicker now!

it could have been a piece of plant or it could have been a parasite (worst case senario which I doubt) a parasite would have to get in there somehow and if you've not added anything new lately it's highly doubtful it's that.
 
If you can no longer see it I would ignore it for now. Be aware you've spotted something and next time you get a visual on him just check it's no longer there. If it's still not visable put it down to 'summat and nowt'

Thanks Akasha, I haven't seen it since.

I've seen Alan flaring at other fish a few times today, I hadn't realised but I haven't seen him do that for weeks. A couple of weeks ago I said he was almost back to normal behaviour wise, he wasn't! I've only realised today how much more himself he is and how much quieter he was a couple of weeks ago. His holes do appear to be filling in (that sounds so wrong) I'm trying not to check them too often as it'll be harder for me to notice a difference.

I fed them cyclops today, I've never had it before. The smaller fish enjoyed it but Alan wasn't impressed with how small it was, I don't think he realised that it was food! So I gave him some artemia and he was much happier I'll post some pics later.

my curviceps will fight for his Artemia. It's his favourite. The angels, tetras, harley's and cories will eat anything but curviceps is fussy. He's learnt if he goes into a corner near the front I'll put the turkey baster right over his nose and he feeds from the end! It's the only way to stop the angels eating the lot!

To be fair none of mine are too fussy, the tetras and cories are like dustbins. They certainly didn't turn down the cyclops! A couple of photos of Alan from today, and a couple of cories and kuhlis because they were playing up to the camera...

Alan seems to be doing well. He's back to flaring at the other fish and chasing them from his cave - which he rarely spends any time in now. A couple of holes have healed but the majority are still there. I'm keeping a very close eye on them to see if any more appear but as the remaining holes are the bigger ones I'm hoping that these are just taking longer to heal.

I now have a new concern. Someone (who has never kept fish) came round the other day and commented that his jaw is odd. His bottom lip has always been bigger than the top one. I know that cockatoos do have big lips anyway. Having looked at some photos of other cockatoos, he does seem to have a large bottom jaw as in the photo below...



This led me to thinking, when picking up dry food, he does spit it out, then pick it up, then spit it out etc etc, until he's eaten it - but he does eat it. He's alway done this, and he's 4 years old so I never thought anything of it, assuming it was normal and he swallows it eventually. He swallows frozen food instantly though, which I took to be down to his love of it!

As a bit of an experiment, I crushed the dry food to see if he would swallow it first time - the New Era pellets are soft, so I had to crush them along with some catfish pellets so they would break up rather than just flattening. He eats this faster, maybe only spitting it out once before swallowing. He does eat the new pellets eagerly so thanks Akasha

Sooo I'm now wondering whether there's something in this, although he's always been the same. Not because there's anything for me to do, I'm just wondering what you think?

Sorry about the essay

if he's always been that way I wouldn't worry. He's four years old now and if it was something new then yeah, be a little concerned and do some research but as he's always had it and he's still alive after 4 years ... ignore it and don't worry.
 
It is the nature of most cichlids to have large mouths, this is why we don't recommend keeping them with small fish. Their mouths are designed this way for them to move their fry around. If you watch a cichlid with fry they will collect them in their mouths and move them if they feel threatened. When the fry become free swimming the parents follow them around and any that stray too far will be collected in the mouth and spat back with the rest of the brood. 
 
If you search for my Laetacara Curvicep cichlid thread there's a video there of my pair keeping their brood in check if you want to see what I mean

Ooo they're really pretty! I've never seen them around here. How did you get on with your male?

Yeah Thats what I thought. I know they move the fry around but he does seem to have a big lip! Sadly the one time my female spawned they ate the eggs and they I lost her a couple of weeks later so he's never need to put his big lip to use!

One of the peppered cories is spawning as we speak. The rummynoses have been hanging around the pair of them like vultures although they're not so bad now so maybe they're full.

you won't see curviceps available often. It's a rare cichlid and an unpopular one too for some reason. I think it is because they arn't as colourful as others in the hobby. They only colour up when in breeding mode. In normal mode they are a grey/brown colour with blue/green markings through their fins,
 
My male is still alone. I've never seen these again and so getting a female for him is impossible at the moment. He's also an old boy now and I don't know how much longer he will be with me. It seems a better option to wait for him to pass on and then decide if I want another pair and look for a bonded pair. I do fancy the idea of a pair of Hongsloi apisto's and so once Mr curviceps passes on I'll have a big decision to make

It took me ages to find a female for Alan, caca apistos are rarely seen around here too. I have seen males available once or twice over the last few years but females are hard to come by. I don't understand it really as the females have lovely markings and colour as well as the males! Sadly she didn't survive long anyway

I'm not seeing too much progress with the holes, they don't seem to be closing up any more. I wonder whether perhaps because they are so big and seem very deep, that they may never heal fully. Apart from that he's coloured up nicely and is still flaring at the others, back to his usual self definitely. My mum popped round the other day and commented on the fact that he was nosy'ing at her again, she hasn't seen him for a while as he was hiding away before we started treatment.

I just want to say again how grateful I am, although he's not fully healed he is so much better than he was!

Some photos from today, he's gained some weight too.

he's looking much better

Just a quick update...Alan still appears to be doing well. He's much healthier. The holes are very slowly starting to show some improvement. Looking at him today they seem to be much better! I do wonder though whether they may just be full of sand, it's black so I suppose it's a possibility when he's been sifting. That crossed my mind only because they seem so much better than yesterday. I'll see what tomorrow brings!

So it would seem that there was sand in the holes, as they'd emptied yesterday and are the same today. I thought as much. Nevertheless he's doing great