GouramiGirl1221

My Green Severum has hold in the head, and I have no idea why. I just did a quick google search which told me that the most likely cause was continued poor water quality. The tank he is in is actually due for a water change, so I checked my levels and got:

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 20

Firstly, my main concern is this spreading to my other fish. Is it contagious? I know it's a disease of large cichlids, but he's in the tank with other types of fish as well (such as swordtails and tetras), so are they at risk as well? My gold severum isn't showing any signs at all.

Secondly, what do I do now? I'd really like to know what I'm doing wrong. It mentioned something in the article about possibly being cause by running carbon in the filter...I run a biochem zorb in my rena canister...could that be it? What do I do to treat this? I'm obviously going to change the water, I know that's the first step in any treatment plan, but I'm just really worried. Do I need to quarantine him? I actually have a blue crayfish growing out in my quarantine tank right now, but I could figure out somewhere to put him if I really needed to...please help, I'm at such a loss. This has literally developed within a day, so I'm concerned with the rate at which it's progressing. I just don't know what to do...

Shawnie

are you sure its hole in the head? and not banged on something or got in a fight with another?

Hole in the head can also be caused by poor diet...being fed feeder fish from a pet store is a huge cause of hole in the head ...feeder fish , unless bred yourself, are not taken care of at most LFS and carry a ton of diseases ....

a proper varied diet and prestine water conditions will help HITH and meds arent needed...

aquarist48

http://www.cichlidfish.com/Adam/hith.html
Hello GouramiGirl. You may find the link above informative if you haven't already seen it. I second Shawnie's comments and suggestions.
Best wishes. I hope your fish is going to be ok.
Ken

peacemaker92

Sorry to hear about your fish having this. Hope you solve it soon! And just a heads up, try to keep your nitrate levels below the 20's. Good luck and keep us posted!

GouramiGirl1221

So sorry I hadn't gotton back with anyone...school has been absolutely insane!

I'm very lucky to have a LFS with a very knowledgeable staff (it's a mom and pop shop, not a chain store). The discoloration around the holes was gone in the morning, but I went and talked to them about it anyway. They said that the discoloration had popped up because of some amount of stress, as I don't feed feeder fish, I prefer frozen food instead of live to supplement for exactly the reasons Shawnie stated. They're getting granules 3 days a week and flakes 2 days a week, freeze dried once a week and frozen once a week, so they're getting a lot of variety. The discoloration has only come up once or twice since then, and when it does I just put in some stress coat in and he's better in a couple of hours.

Peacemaker92 - It's really not possible to keep my nitrates under 20. My tap runs with 20 nitrates, but my aquariums are so heavily planted that they don't go up throughout the week between water changes.

Thanks for all the concern!