White spots on face of my Blood parrot

[renadia]

One of my BP has many white spots on it's face, they seem like grouved in, the second one has a few and the smallest is OK. Any idea?
Have seen on the Net that white spots on BP could mean the water is to cold, I have started the heater and water is at 78 for a week but spots are still there.

[Laura]

Do BP's get Hole in the Head (HITH)?  I know angles and oscars are more prone.
You may want to google it and see if it looks right.

[KLKelly]

Yes - definitely research hole in the head.  I'm sure cichlid experts will have lots of good advice on this!!!!!  I have zero experience with HITH.

Check and see if its best treated with medication in the tank water or medicated food or a combination of both.  I think a metronidazole based medication is whats recommended.

If you need metro-med (bought at mops.ca) - let me know and I can sell you some of my supply.  I just bought it end of last month to treat a fish with bloat.  I think I have some spare metro+ you can have also.  I didn't it very much (until my pure metro came in) because it didn't tell me what was in it - I heard it may just be a mixture of metronidazole and salt.

Regards,

Karrie

[BigDaddy]

Pitted spots on the head definately sounds like hole in the head.  Although common in discus and oscars... it can affect most cichlids.  Google "hole in the head" or "head and lateral line erosion" (the official name of the disease) for treatment.

Or just go to a local store that carries Metro... and follow the dosing directions on the product.

[renadia]

Yes - definitely research hole in the head.  I'm sure cichlid experts will have lots of good advice on this!!!!!  I have zero experience with HITH.

Check and see if its best treated with medication in the tank water or medicated food or a combination of both.  I think a metronidazole based medication is whats recommended.

If you need metro-med (bought at mops.ca) - let me know and I can sell you some of my supply.  I just bought it end of last month to treat a fish with bloat.  I think I have some spare metro+ you can have also.  I didn't it very much (until my pure metro came in) because it didn't tell me what was in it - I heard it may just be a mixture of metronidazole and salt.

Regards,

Karrie

Thanks for the offer but I have a crazy week  and I called BA which is close to home (West end) and they have Metro and they also sell food with Metro in it and it was recommended on the Net to treat with both. So I will go there tonigh after hockey

[renadia]

Yep it's HITH. The poor fish I have had them for 1 1/2 week and they had those white spots. The information I found was that poor water condition (the bottom was very dirty when I bought the tank), stress and malnutrition, among others could cause this. If caused by dirty bottom of tank they could also be infected with Hexamita. Some sites say to put them in a different tank for treatment. That is not an option for me.
My water is not cycled yet and the ammonia is a problem. I will continue with daily water changes.
Tonight I will buy Metro and food with Metro. It is recommended on some sites to treat with both. Another site said to treat in a bath treatment every other day for three treatments.
Would that be OK to put them in a bucket, treat the water feed them with medicated food and then put them back in the tank, would that stress them to much?  ?
Or I can treat everyone in the tank.

[BigDaddy]

Treat them in the tank at this point

[KLKelly]

A bath treatment also means - medication in the tank water as opposed to just medicated food (non bath).

The instructions on the bottle of Metro+ that I bought at BigAl's is:
Bath: As a bath treatment ... "use one capful (9.7grams) per 10 gallons of water.  Partial or complete water changes must be made prior to the beginning of the treatment and every 24 hours thereafter, followed by re-treatement.  Repeat the treatment every 24 hours for five to seven days".  I did a 50% water change every day for 7 days when I tried the Metro+.  You could do larger water changes if your ammonia gets too high.  Make sure to remove any carbon you have in your filters or it will suck up the medication.  The metro bottle treats 100 gallons.  If you keep them in the 50 gallon you would need...2.5 bottles (5 days) or 3.5 bottles (7days).

Treating them with medicated food at the same time is a good idea!!!! 

Good luck!

[renadia]

Thanks! I'm going to build muscles with all these water changes!  ;)I'm getting a 2nd hand 75 gal this weekend and it has 7 fish, the owner sent me an e-mail saying he had cleaned EVERYTHING! I guess I'm going to be cycling 2 tanks! HELP

Thinking of adding the new fish with the crew in the 55g and letting the 75 cycle. This way it would be only 1 tank with water changes.

[KLKelly]

If you get all the media from their filter - the guy selling you the 75 gallon - you won't have to cycle .  You can start another thread on this.   I hope the filter media is part of your deal.

I wouldn't introduce any fish to your guys - angels are susceptible to hole in the head also.  Wait until your parrots are treated.  Also introducing any more load on your 55 you will end up with bigger problems - serious overload, stress on the fish, a hell of a time keeping the water happy and lengthening the cycling time on your 55.

Assuming you get the filter media from the tank when you buy it... What you can do is make sure the 75 keeps it cycle - keeping the fish you get in the 75 in the 75.  Then once you know that you aren't having ammonia or nitrite blips and see that the fish are healthy - steal a bit of media from the 75 and put it in the back of the filter on the 55.  Or get some filter media from an ovas member!!!! 

(I'm thinking of setting up a 20 gallon tank in the basement and feeding it ammonia every day just so I can donate media and help fish avoid cycling )

[BigDaddy]

Thanks! I'm going to build muscles with all these water changes!  ;)I'm getting a 2nd hand 75 gal this weekend and it has 7 fish, the owner sent me an e-mail saying he had cleaned EVERYTHING! I guess I'm going to be cycling 2 tanks! HELP

Thinking of adding the new fish with the crew in the 55g and letting the 75 cycle. This way it would be only 1 tank with water changes.

Not a good idea... your parrots and tinfoil are allready too much for the 55... what kind of filter are you getting for the 75.  I'm sure someone could get you some seeded media

[renadia]

It comes with a fluval 404. so if my 55 gal came with a fluval 404 I didn' t touch it but cleaned the gravel and aquarium is that why it's cycling?

[dan2x38]

Add 1 tsp of salt per 5 gallons. Add this dissolved in treated water. Then add slowly over several hours or half a day even. When you do water changes replace the amount of salt removed by the water change. This will reduce stress.

[KLKelly]

Maybe the person you bought it from had the filter off for a while before you came to pick it up?  I don't know why you are cycling if it was only a couple of hours between his place and being set up at yours. I recall you saying the filter material was still wet. If you rinsed it in chlorinated tap water - that may do it or if you used antibiotic meds on the tank.  I would have expected that you would be cycled also.

[renadia]

No I didn't rinse the filters.  I have pond salt so I will add some tonight I did add some after I initially put them back in the tank.
Would the salt interfere with the treatment?

Got some meds last night. The first to add to the water and the medicated food so I started the treatment. I removed the
carbon. Hope this will work 

Thanks for all you advice it's appreciated

Now the water test is really weird I will start a new tread on this