Is this hole in the head?

fur43

fur43

Medium Fish
#1
Dec 3, 2006
59
0
0
Sacramento, California
#1
I have a 4" manganese cichlid I have had him for about 6 weeks. I think he has hole in the head disease, I don't know for sure or how to treat him. For now he is in a 5g bucket and I added some salt to the water. For the 96g I did a water change and cleaned the gravel. His fins were bitten by the fish at the store, if you were wondering about those. Lately they have been eating: brine shrimp, blood worms, earth worms, crickets, feeder goldfish and the regular cichlid pellets.

I tested the water and it is pretty acidic (6.2). Could this be the problem? Why wouldn't it affect the rest of the fish?

The first photo you can see the color change around his gill. The other two show how bad he is infected.

96g hex
canister filter
3 other fish ( 8" mayan, 4" jack, 10" pleco)





 

radamsk1

radamsk1

Large Fish
#2
Apr 23, 2005
153
0
16
45
Long Island, NY
#2
Well, it's a bit hard to tell from the photos, but my first impression is that it isn't hole in the head. As for the pH, the 6.2 wouldn't be causing the problem, but as long as there hasn't been any sudden swings in pH it shouldn't advesely affect him. You might want to try to get the pH up a little bit, to at least 6.5.

You always have to be a bit careful when feeding live foods, as many times they harbor pathogenic bacteria and parasites.

From oscars I've had in the past, HLLE affected more of the front of the fish. You can try a quarantine tank and some general broad spec antibiotics, add some salt, raise the temp, take out the charcoal filter, and make sure he has some good quality vitamin-enriched foods.
 

brian1973

brian1973

Superstar Fish
#3
Jan 20, 2008
2,001
3
38
Corpus Christi, Texas
#3
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