Is This Hole In The Head?

[BeezerGeezer]

I have been treating one of my discus for hole in the head with a product called 'eHSa Hexamita Discus disease treatment'. The treatment lasts for 3 days and I finished the first course yesterday. So far there are no obvious signs of improvement.
What I would like to know is:
Am I treating for the right disease?
Should I wait a few days to see if things improve?
If I need to re-dose, how long should I wait, and do I need to do a water change?
 
Hopefully there is a picture attached showing the fish.
 

 
Thanks in advance.

 

[Stimo]

This disease is especially common in discus fish and Oscar fish and causes large cavities and soars on the head and along the lateral line of the fish. The open wounds caused by hole in the head disease are very distinctive and makes this disease easy to discover and diagnose. If your fish has growing wounds on its head it is likely suffering from hole in the head disease. Early signs of this disease are small pits on the head of the fish. This disease often appears simultaneous with a disease called Hexamita and this has lead to these two diseases being frequently confused with each other. Hexamita attacks the intestines of the fish and can often be the cause of the hole in the head disease which has been attributed to nutritional deficiency, The two diseases are however not one and the same.

Hole in the head disease is believed to be the result of a deficiency of one or several of the following nutrients: Phosphorus, Calium, Vitamin C and Vitamin D. This deficiency can as earlier mentioned be caused by Hexamita and its effect on the digestive system but it can also be a result of poor water quality, poor diet or over filtration using chemical filtration.

Hole in the head disease is often very hard to cure, especially in its later stages, but an improved diet with more vitamins and increasing the water quality by cleaning the tank and performing more frequent water changes might help. It is also recommended to remove any chemical filtration such as active carbon filtration. Improving the diet of the fish can include adding vitamins to the diet, introducing vitamin rich flake food to the diet and removing (or at least cut down on) nutrient poor feeder fish and beef heart from the diet.

copied and pasted from another site hope it helps

 

[BeezerGeezer]

Thanks for the prompt response. The feed is the same as they have been getting for the last two years, and is a quality flake type.Water quality is fine with no chemical filtration/carbon. There are 2 other discus in the tank amongst regular community type fish and no others are exhibiting any symptoms.

 

[star4]

It does look like HITH its a nasty thing to treat and can take weeks if not months. What is the relationship like with the affected discus and the others? stress can also be a cause of HITH if this discus is a lower male or female of a group it could be stress related. HITH is not always to do with feeding and water quality. If the other fish are totally clear, check along the lateral line for open sensory pits it doesnt always appear on the head first, then I would suggest removing the affected fish to another tank if possible until he/she is completely clear because if it is stress related then its going to be almost impossible to cure I am afraid.

 

[BeezerGeezer]

Hi Star4, thanks for the reply. There may have been some pestering at feeding times from the other large discus, but that hasn't been obvious for quite some time. He seems quite happy now, especially keen at mealtimes. I'll try and research the treatment a bit further on the net, looks like we could be in for the long haul.

 

[BeezerGeezer]

Well here we are one week further on. My discus has shown remarkable improvement after treating the tank with eSHa Hexamita Discus disease treatment. Still not cured but looking much better. Thanks for all the input.

 

[Stimo]

good to hear he/she is on the mend

 

[star4]

Great news