Don't know what it is...HELP!

[*Sarah*]

But my female Gourami has a spot on her head, and on her top fin, it isn't fuzzy like Ich, but looks like she has a sore on her head or something. Haven't noticed any of the fish attacking her or anything :( HELP!!!

[Chrona]

But my female Gourami has a spot on her head, and on her top fin, it isn't fuzzy like Ich, but looks like she has a sore on her head or something. Haven't noticed any of the fish attacking her or anything :( HELP!!!

It's literally called hole in the head disease.

1 sec, I'll see what meds are recommended

[*Sarah*]

Here's a pic :( This developed during the day today, she was fine this morning!
http://i19.tinypic.com/2rf4zut.jpg

[cocoa_pleco]

There are many medications on the market. Do lots of water changes, add meds, and keep the water clean

[cocoa_pleco]

OUCH, that looks sore

[Chrona]

Hole in head is actually an internal parasite, which are a pain to get to. Heres some meds for it

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/NavResults.cfm?Ntt=hole%20in%20head&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=2004&Nty=1

[*Sarah*]

I was just reading about it, and I don't get it! We do water changes AT LEAST 2-3 times a WEEK, because we've added some new fish, and I feed a variety of foods, like flakes, spirulina, blood worms, tubifex worms...I don't understand. My tank isn't over crowded either :( I don't have a hospital tank yet either :(

[Chrona]

Actually, can you take a closer picture of the spots? Does it bulge out at all? One of my tetras had something similar in location and color and size, but it bulged out slightly, which turned out to be the incurable lymphocyst

[*Sarah*]

Well, it's more like a pit, and given the fact that it's spreading along the lateral line, I'm pretty sure it must be hole in the head disease :( I can't get meds tonight, its 10:30 pm :( Should I remove her and keep her in a rubbermaid container or something?

[*Sarah*]

What would you do?

[Chrona]

It's up to you. On one hand, it won't spread to any other fish, but on the other, it's not gonna have heating and it won't be filtered (though that part shouldn't matter for a few hours) You could get a disposable plastic container, fill it with aquarium water, and float it in the tank though. I've had to do that a few times. The water quality will suck after more than 24 hours, but it'll be warm. You'll probably need string or something to keep it upright and stationary

[kimmers318]

Sometimes doing too many water changes can turn out to be a bad thing if you are disturbing the beneficial bacteria too much. I don't believe HITH gets that fuzzy look that I am seeing, but without experience in that area wait for someone to confirm. Personally I would recommend melafix, which is good for the treatment of ulcers and open wounds and has antibacterial properties, and pimafix which is antifungal to treat fungus or cotony growth, mouth and body fungus....both treatments are natural and should not interfere with your water parameters. I would also recommend adding stresscoat at the dosage recommended for repairing damaged skin and fins, it is generally sold as a water dechlorinator but I have seen it work well to help a fish naturally heal itself.
That being said, do you have a water test kit? Doing too many water changes can disturb the natural bacteria that you want so I highly recommend that you get one if you don't have one, learn what the readings mean and determine your water change schedule from there. Read up on cycling. And, keep us posted, we will help as much as possible. If one of our cichlid lovers comes along and determines that it does look like HITH (hole in the head disease), by all means follow their recommended course of treatment.

[*Sarah*]

I was looking at pics of the disease and it doens't look the same. Hers is more inflamed looking, and there's just one hole, but in other pics there are a bunch of holes.

[*Sarah*]

Our tank has cycled, and I have been testing the water. nitrates low, nitrites 0, ammonia 0. We have quite hard water, but everyone around here does.

We add stress coat stuff when we do water changes as well. I'll try segregating her with a separate container and see how things go.

[Chrona]

Then, you should just quarantine and wait for the cichlid experts to take a look as Kimmers suggested. I probably shouldn't have been so hasty in my "diagnosis", since the picture is a little fuzzy.

[Drumachine09]

Off of the bottle of Melafix
"A safe, all natural way to treat bacterial fish infections. Melafix treats: Open red sores, Fin and tail rot, Eye cloud, pop eye, body slime, mouth fungus, and open body wounds.
Remove carbon, treat one cap per 1- us gallons of water 1-2 times per day. Continue for seven days and make 25 percent water change. When adding new fish or handling fish, does daily for 3 days."

As you can see, this stuff pretty much covers all of your bases, and is a good addition to any aquarium medicine cabinet. I belive that the fuzz would be classified as a fungus and not HITH disease, as HITH creates a small dimple thet grows larger over time. This stuff should pretty much do the trick.

[cocoa_pleco]

Keep her in the tank- i dont think it can spread.

HITH can also occur because of stress

[Chrona]

Off of the bottle of Melafix
"A safe, all natural way to treat bacterial fish infections. Melafix treats: Open red sores, Fin and tail rot, Eye cloud, pop eye, body slime, mouth fungus, and open body wounds.
Remove carbon, treat one cap per 1- us gallons of water 1-2 times per day. Continue for seven days and make 25 percent water change. When adding new fish or handling fish, does daily for 3 days."

As you can see, this stuff pretty much covers all of your bases, and is a good addition to any aquarium medicine cabinet. I belive that the fuzz would be classified as a fungus and not HITH disease, as HITH creates a small dimple thet grows larger over time. This stuff should pretty much do the trick.

Melafix works great, but I think it's Pimafix that works better for fungus. Use both actually, since they complement each other.

On a side note, the stuff smells great when you first put it in, but it later turns into an "old tea" smell that is hard to get off your hands/anything that touches the water...lol. 4x 50% water changes later, I can still smell the stuff faintly. And my water mysteriously clouded up for a week after I started treatment, but that may just be coincidence.

[*Sarah*]

Thanks SO much for all the help! YOu guys are the best! Assuming that she lives till the morning when I can get out to get some meds...I'm going to get some Melafix and treat her tomorrow. The poor thing has to be feeling some pain with that :( It developed sooo fast, I can't believe it!

[cocoa_pleco]

i love the first smell- then yeah, it smells like a rotted tea bag.

I highly reccomend melafix and limafix comboed

[*Sarah*]

Instead of treating my whole 40 gal can I just take her out and treat her in a separate tank (assuming I buy one tomorrow?). It'd save me a whole lot of money!

[cocoa_pleco]

a 10g hospital with a small filter, no gravel, and meds is good.

Good luck, and keep the water conditions really good!

[Chrona]

Instead of treating my whole 40 gal can I just take her out and treat her in a separate tank (assuming I buy one tomorrow?). It'd save me a whole lot of money!

Sure, but keep in mind the hospital tank won't be cycled, so you really don't want to have the gourami in the tank for too long or the ammonia spike will aggravate the situation(I think the recommended treatment time is like a week...). And pima/melafix is fairly concentrated and cheap compared to the antiparasite stuff.

[cocoa_pleco]

how about puting cycle in a day before treatment?

[*Sarah*]

What if I take water and a piece of sponge filter from my 40 gal and put it in the hospital tank filter? Unfortunately I can't go get the meds till tonight :( My hubby is at work and we only have the one car. I made a little "quarantine" section in the tank using a Ferrero Rocher (chocolates) plastic container, just put some holes in the top, and it's floating in the 40 gal, but full of water, and she's in there. She still seems ok, I added some API Stress Coat yesterday. I hope to pick up a 5 or 10 gal w/accessories tonight for a hospital tank, and the meds, and I'll treat her.

[*Sarah*]

Well...she didn't make it. Saw her on her side barely breathing, even after treatment, and a while later she was gone. THEN, I looked around for my male Gourami, since I hadn't seen him in a few hrs, and he was DEAD in with some plants! SO, both my Gourami's are gone :( Makes me wonder if they both had a disease from the LFS?

[Chrona]

Well...she didn't make it. Saw her on her side barely breathing, even after treatment, and a while later she was gone. THEN, I looked around for my male Gourami, since I hadn't seen him in a few hrs, and he was DEAD in with some plants! SO, both my Gourami's are gone :( Makes me wonder if they both had a disease from the LFS?

That sucks :(

How long have you had them?