Battling Hexamita, any help?

[Rivers2k]

I have been battling Hexamita in my tank for over a month now. This is my first case of this in decades of fish keeping and I can't seem to beat it. I first thought it was an IP and treated with Prazi as that didn't work I did more research and found out it was hexamita. After a few weeks of loosing fish and not being able to cure I disposed of every fish that showed signs of it trying to save my most prized fish.

A few weeks later the other fish are showing signs. So I have been treating with seachem metroplex for two weeks now. It has seemed to keep fish form getting worse but not curing. I am so frustrated! I am doing water changes and dosing ever 2-3 days. I have added aeration.

Anyone who has beaten this please help me.

PS. I am talking about the intestinal protazoa not HITH

 

[PassengerTN]

RD. has a good write up on mfk for hex/Spironucleus. My male GT was shedding the mucous lining of his gut, followed his Epsom salt treatment for 5 days and it cleared up. He says most fish clear up in 3, but I wanted to be certain. You also can't really overdose this stuff!


You want to do a 3% solution of the magnesium sulphate (Epsom salt). Add 1 level tbsp (15 grams) into 500mL of distilled water, mix until dissolved. I soaked pellets in it twice daily. Worked wonders.

NLS also makes a food called Hex Guard. I've not used it, but it is supposed to be highly effective. Loads of garlic, Epsom salt, and Metronidazole. Metro is lethal against hex/Spiro. RD. told me Epsom salt presoak works well in early stages, but if the parasites become systemic, and they travel into the organs and/or bloodstream, then that you will need metronidazole to kill them off.


Here is the link on RD.'s treatment
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/treating-hexamita-aka-spironucleus.339362/

Jesse

 

[Rivers2k]

Thank you. I couldn't find hex guard but I found NLS hex shield. Sounds like the same stuff. I over nighted it so it will be at my house tomorrow. I have the Epsom salts just need to pick up some distilled water.

 

[PassengerTN]

Nah you're right, it is Hex Shield. My brain isn't functioning well today as my kids are on fall break and running wild lol.

Is the fish still eating? That's a huge plus if so. RD. mentioned in my problem thread to cut out high proteins until its cleared.

Jesse

 

[Rivers2k]

No worries i understand I have three kids myself. Yes they are still eating. I hope I can get them to eat the salt infused food but if they don't eat that adding salt directly to the tank will work as well correct?

 

[Caliban07]

I beat this after losing 4 out of 8 of my firemouths. Think we had a discussion on firemouths at one time. Basically one of them was infected from the get go but I mistook the diseases for malnutrition.

The fish have to be eating to cure the affected fish. I beat this quite easily once I actually diagnosed it. I mixed up one scoop of seachem metrodazanole in a small solution of water. I poured some NLS pellets in to a bottle cap and used a pipette to drip the mixed solution over the pellets and then left to dry. Once dry the metro crystals stick to the food once it's dry. I then fed this one day on and one day off for about a week. The lesions started to disappear on my fish. Colour returned and weight returned. It tried to come back once but I remedicated internally as described above but also used water life's octozin which I honestly believed sealed the deal. Both water and food dosing is the way forward. It's an upsetting disease once it takes a foothold.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[Caliban07]

RD. has a good write up on mfk for hex/Spironucleus. My male GT was shedding the mucous lining of his gut, followed his Epsom salt treatment for 5 days and it cleared up. He says most fish clear up in 3, but I wanted to be certain. You also can't really overdose this stuff!


You want to do a 3% solution of the magnesium sulphate (Epsom salt). Add 1 level tbsp (15 grams) into 500mL of distilled water, mix until dissolved. I soaked pellets in it twice daily. Worked wonders.

NLS also makes a food called Hex Guard. I've not used it, but it is supposed to be highly effective. Loads of garlic, Epsom salt, and Metronidazole. Metro is lethal against hex/Spiro. RD. told me Epsom salt presoak works well in early stages, but if the parasites become systemic, and they travel into the organs and/or bloodstream, then that you will need metronidazole to kill them off.


Here is the link on RD.'s treatment
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/treating-hexamita-aka-spironucleus.339362/

Jesse

I missed this post and this is a +1 from me. I tried straight Epsom salt soaked food first and it worked for a while but it wasn't strong enough. I think it's because I had fish that were not eating though and so the cycle was left to repeat. Epsom is worth a try first.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[HUKIT]

What signs are you seeing? Stringy white feces, refusing food, and reclusiveness?

 

[Rivers2k]

What signs are you seeing? Stringy white feces, refusing food, and reclusiveness?

White feces but not stringing like typical IP's more like clumps of white glue. Its kind of hard to describe. maybe like quarter inch of cooked rice noodle would be the best way to describe it.

They are still eating and not to reclusive but with the first round that I lost they eventually stop eating become emaciated hiding in corners until death. these doses of metro seem to keep them healthy enough to keep eating but I am still seeing the white feces after a week and a half.

 

[HUKIT]

Yup that's it, I've fought with this for years and years now. It doesn't matter what I feed, what the water conditions are, or any other fact for that matter. This has been my biggest issue with keeping new worlds in the last 10 years or so, never with Lake Malawi. I've used Neil's method many times with even force feeding some of my festae but not with a great amount of success to be honest. I literally lost two lyonsi within the last couple of months. I've started to use hex shield as well with a great amount of success so Pablo comes through again.

 

[Rivers2k]

Yup that's it, I've fought with this for years and years now. It doesn't matter what I feed, what the water conditions are, or any other fact for that matter. This has been my biggest issue with keeping new worlds in the last 10 years or so, never with Lake Malawi. I've used Neil's method many times with even force feeding some of my festae but not with a great amount of success to be honest. I literally lost two lyonsi within the last couple of months. I've started to use hex shield as well with a great amount of success so Pablo comes through again.

So for you does the problem reoccur without adding new stock or does it come in with new stock that is being added? I can't understand where this coming from. I constantly do water changes, never use live food. I feed a mix of frozen, NLS pellets and some flakes.

 

[HUKIT]

So for you does the problem reoccur without adding new stock or does it come in with new stock that is being added? I can't understand where this coming from. I constantly do water changes, never use live food. I feed a mix of frozen, NLS pellets and some flakes.

Yes, I've had stock clear for months only to battle it again and start to lose fish because the treatment wouldn't work again. Hex Shield is not a daily food as it contains Metro but I use it on all new fish as part of my QT process and started using it every six months as a preventative.

I have still lost a few fish but since starting with that line of foods the deaths have dropped by 98%. Another reason you'll only see NLS in my room.

 

[PassengerTN]

There is a resistance built up to the metro over time. A big reason not to keep the food in regular rotation.


Jesse

 

[HUKIT]

There is a resistance built up to the metro over time. A big reason not to keep the food in regular rotation.


Jesse

Yes, that and it can lead to organ failure as well. Which is why I don't recommend feeding after the initial dose, I feed every six months but that is my choice and not one I'd tell a inexperienced aquarist to do. Simply soaking pellets in Epsom salts is a far better idea for maintenance.

 

[Rivers2k]

Thanks for the info. I soaked food in metro and epsome salts last night. My hexshield should arrive today. I did 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of epsome salts in my tank last night. This morning my fish that had it the worst was swimming a 2" long piece of white feces before it dropped from him. I hope that is a sign that the meds and salt is working through the body.

 

[HUKIT]

Thanks for the info. I soaked food in metro and epsome salts last night. My hexshield should arrive today. I did 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of epsome salts in my tank last night. This morning my fish that had it the worst was swimming a 2" long piece of white feces before it dropped from him. I hope that is a sign that the meds and salt is working through the body.

As long as they are still eating that's a good sign. It's when they start refusing food that it makes it harder to treat, trying to force a fish with a rubber pipette is huge pain in the backside.

 

[Rivers2k]

As long as they are still eating that's a good sign. It's when they start refusing food that it makes it harder to treat, trying to force a fish with a rubber pipette is huge pain in the backside.

I have only done that once before it is a pain.

 

[Rivers2k]

Most of the fish seem to be doing better. I am only seeing white poop from one of the fish. The fish that is still showing symptoms didn't show symptoms when I first started feeding hex shield a few days ago. I hope she is just a few steps behind the others. These are the steps I am taking

1. Feeding hex shield. Fish aren't refusing yet but they aren't eager about it either.
2. Epsome Salt 1tbs spoon for every 5 gallons
3. Metro dosed tank as directed by the bottle.

 

[Rivers2k]

So the fish decided they are done with the Hex Shield treatment. They nibbled it last night and stayed away from it this morning. I added some flakes to make sure they had an appetite and they accepted those greedily. I don't see anymore white feces and out of some I have seen some colored feces so that is a good sign. I hope we are out of the woods. I did treat the tank with Epsome salts after doing 90% water change last night.