Angelfish white spots on head

Hello everyone,

My angelfish have these white spots on her head. It protrudes out and then disappears and it will appear again somewhere else on her head. I thought it was hith disease so I separated her and treated her with seachem metroplex for a whole month and it hasn’t helped. It only seems to appear in her head area and haven’t left holes/spots after the white stuff is gone.

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 15

Any suggestions? Photos attached

 

it could some some type of worm keep in qt until its gone but I do not know what it is

 

Look into HITH [Hole In The Head].
How to treat HITH

Contrary to popular belief, and common fish store advice, HITH is actually very easy and extremely inexpensive to cure. It can be cured, or rather sent into remission in several easy steps. Just as a note I’ve found it is best if you follow the steps in the order they are listed, some steps are not vital to recovery but steps 1 and 2 are essential. It is interesting to note that this treatment does not requite expensive drugs, but relies on good diet and tank maintenance. Following these steps a fish can be cured with little or no money spent.

1) Feed a balanced and vitamin enriched diet. Get your fishes diet back on track and supplement whatever pellet food you choose with vitamins twice a week. If you can’t find any vitamin supplements at your fish store, just powder a common high quality multi-vitamin, then dissolve a small portion in some tank water and allow the pellets to absorb it. In addition feed a larger variety of foods, being sure that they are all relatively close to the fish’s natural diet. Some examples are earthworms, crickets, mealworms, beef heart, crayfish, shrimp, blood worms, or krill. The list could go on ad infinitum, and freeze dried versions of any of the above mentioned foods are good choices too. See the recipe below for a good balanced home made food.

2) Start doing water changes of at least 20% but not more then 50% every three days, usually 25-30% is sufficient. This is the only effective way to lower excess nitrates from the water, make sure that you vacuum the gravel at the same time, as detritus and feces can collect here without your knowing.

3) Add 1 tbs of aquarium salt to every 5-10 gallons of water. It is important not to use table salt as it is treated, kosher salt, marine/aquarium salt, or any untreated forms of salt are ok. Make sure to add new salt for water removed in water changes and be aware that once salt is in the tank it will stay there until removed by water changes so do not add more then what you removed.

4) Raise the temperature in the tank to 80-82° F. This will increase the fish’s metabolic rate and decrease healing time. Be sure not to raise the temperature above 84-86° F as this can cause undue stress to the fish and is not productive for healing, also do not raise the temperature with out first following steps 1, 2 and 3, as you will simply cause the HITH to advance at a more rapid rate

5) Remove all carbon from your filters. This is a precautionary measure unless you know for a fact that the carbon is the main cause. In future purchase only high quality carbon, and make sure that it is thoroughly washed before addition back in the tank. This is especially important if you are planning to treat per step 6, as carbon will remove medication from the water.

6) If all else fails or for very advanced cases it will be a good idea to treat the tank for Hexamita, follow the directions for dosing on the box, or bottle, and continue treatment for at least a week. Then go back to treating per steps 1-5.
I would start with Boyds Vitachem mixed with their food and additional water changes for a week or two before getting to step 3.
Should be no big deal.

If you really believe this is not HITH then it is pimples and you just need to up your waterchanges on the regular from here out.

 

Look into HITH [Hole In The Head].
How to treat HITH

Contrary to popular belief, and common fish store advice, HITH is actually very easy and extremely inexpensive to cure. It can be cured, or rather sent into remission in several easy steps. Just as a note I’ve found it is best if you follow the steps in the order they are listed, some steps are not vital to recovery but steps 1 and 2 are essential. It is interesting to note that this treatment does not requite expensive drugs, but relies on good diet and tank maintenance. Following these steps a fish can be cured with little or no money spent.

1) Feed a balanced and vitamin enriched diet. Get your fishes diet back on track and supplement whatever pellet food you choose with vitamins twice a week. If you can’t find any vitamin supplements at your fish store, just powder a common high quality multi-vitamin, then dissolve a small portion in some tank water and allow the pellets to absorb it. In addition feed a larger variety of foods, being sure that they are all relatively close to the fish’s natural diet. Some examples are earthworms, crickets, mealworms, beef heart, crayfish, shrimp, blood worms, or krill. The list could go on ad infinitum, and freeze dried versions of any of the above mentioned foods are good choices too. See the recipe below for a good balanced home made food.

2) Start doing water changes of at least 20% but not more then 50% every three days, usually 25-30% is sufficient. This is the only effective way to lower excess nitrates from the water, make sure that you vacuum the gravel at the same time, as detritus and feces can collect here without your knowing.

3) Add 1 tbs of aquarium salt to every 5-10 gallons of water. It is important not to use table salt as it is treated, kosher salt, marine/aquarium salt, or any untreated forms of salt are ok. Make sure to add new salt for water removed in water changes and be aware that once salt is in the tank it will stay there until removed by water changes so do not add more then what you removed.

4) Raise the temperature in the tank to 80-82° F. This will increase the fish’s metabolic rate and decrease healing time. Be sure not to raise the temperature above 84-86° F as this can cause undue stress to the fish and is not productive for healing, also do not raise the temperature with out first following steps 1, 2 and 3, as you will simply cause the HITH to advance at a more rapid rate

5) Remove all carbon from your filters. This is a precautionary measure unless you know for a fact that the carbon is the main cause. In future purchase only high quality carbon, and make sure that it is thoroughly washed before addition back in the tank. This is especially important if you are planning to treat per step 6, as carbon will remove medication from the water.

6) If all else fails or for very advanced cases it will be a good idea to treat the tank for Hexamita, follow the directions for dosing on the box, or bottle, and continue treatment for at least a week. Then go back to treating per steps 1-5.
I would start with Boyds Vitachem mixed with their food and additional water changes for a week or two before getting to step 3.
Should be no big deal.

If you really believe this is not HITH then it is pimples and you just need to up your waterchanges on the regular from here out.

Thank you so much for the response!

Aside from the white stuff on her head, she’s eating, swimming and acting completely normal. I assumed it was HITH that’s why I quarantined her and gave her a month’s worth of metronidazole but it doesn’t seem to get any better.

I will definitely follow these steps and I’ll report back with an update.

 

I agree with above treatment recommendations although I don't use the aquarium salts, it's HITH. They have sensory pits in that area, those pits become infected with bacteria, that bacteria causes the pit to open into a lesion and fungus to grow on it which is that white looking thing you see. Cichlids are prone to this.

Your nitrates aren't that high, but regardless the water changes that were recommended will help reduce bacteria in the tank. And aid with the fishes immune system.

Diet must also be improved also. A lot of this is the immune system being run down from a less than ideal diet.

The ragged fins, the fish with the stumped dorsal, all from stress, and all stems from a diet that is lacking since your water quality isn't THAT bad at 15 nitrates. Bringing the nitrates down below 10ppm and keeping it there with water changes and improving their diet will allow their immune system to be reinforced and fight off the issues themselves, and then recover the damages that occurred including regrowing fins.

Just my opinion, but in your case this was diet caused. What does your feeding schedule look like?