Does HITH ever go??

[Juannie]

Well I've tried medicating my oscar's tank to try getting rid of the HITH, i purchased the metro tablets from a pet store and did 2 lots of medicating - it hasn't worked. I've been doing regular water changes and put him onto Hikari Cichlid Bio Gold months ago which he absolutely loves & now creates less waste! The hole hasn't gotten any bigger, it's very very tiny and he's still as active as ever. Is there much more that can be done or can he live a long healthy life with this small hole?

[Lady Hobbs]

It can be cured but you may need to try several meds to find the one that works the best. This site has really good information. I also suggest if you are using carbon in your filtration to get it out of there and do a lot of large water changes.

http://www.worldcichlids.com/diseases/Adamhith.html

[cocoa_pleco]

apparently if the oscar gets more vitamin C it helps

[crackatinny]

Did you see this the article sandigger put into this thread for me http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=4986 it is an excellent article.

[Juannie]

Thanks everyone. I did try the metronidazole tablets just over a month ago and removed carbon about 5months ago. I did two doses of the tablets with epsom salts as advised but no changes. It hasn't gotten any worse though and hasn't seemed to effect him in anyway. I had one guy at the LFS tell me that he's got an oscar that's had HITH for years, he tried meds and other things but said it would heal then open up again, his oscar is apaprently very happy though. I have read the articles (thanks again), so I'm not sure what to do. I purchased some vitamins which I added last week, so I will try adding it to his food now, see if that helps.

[cocoa_pleco]

If you have some bucks around, theres another thing worth trying.

At one of my lfs's, they have a product STRICTLY for HITH use, and it is made of the BEST, and i mean BEST chemicals money can buy.
The price is 25$ for 6OZ, but apparently its REALLY good. I cant remember what the product is called, but it has a colorful bottle.

[Juannie]

If you have some bucks around, theres another thing worth trying.

At one of my lfs's, they have a product STRICTLY for HITH use, and it is made of the BEST, and i mean BEST chemicals money can buy.
The price is 25$ for 6OZ, but apparently its REALLY good. I cant remember what the product is called, but it has a colorful bottle.

Do you have any idea of the name? I wonder whether we can get it over here??

[cocoa_pleco]

Its gonna bloody kill me for the name. All i know is the bottle has a swirl of neon colors, and will really stand out.

Hex-a-vital is supposed to be really good too, its mainly targeted for oscars, angels, and severums.

[Juannie]

Its gonna bloody kill me for the name. All i know is the bottle has a swirl of neon colors, and will really stand out.

Hex-a-vital is supposed to be really good too, its mainly targeted for oscars, angels, and severums.


Thank you, I will try and find something similar - he's one I don't want to loose!

[kenyth]

I'm no expert, but I recently read an article on HITH.

According to the article I read, vitamin deficiency plays a role in HITH. They recommended soaking pelleted food in liquid vitamins daily while treating it. They also recommended frequent water changing to keep nitrates low and feeding some live food such as crickets, mealworms, blackworms, earthworms and shrimp. Strangely enough, I've heard that feeder fish are a relatively poor source of nutrients. I think the link posted earlier by Crackatinny leads to that article.

[Juannie]

Thank you, I've tried soaking his Hikari Bio Gold pellets in vitamins and he spits them out. He eats a bit of frozen bloodworm but since putting him on Hikari he won't even touch the frozen beef or cichlid I buy him. He's become particularly fussy. The hole still hasn't worsened, so I'm going to keep an eye on it and keep my water changes up.