What is this! its really starting to freak me out

[WaterPond]

My favorite angel, named blue has got these really weird spots on his head... just on his head, nowhere else. They are too large to be ich, but resemble it slightly

Parameters:
pH- 7.2
ammonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrate-10
temperature-88F---finishing up an ick treatment from a week ago

I am really scared for this guy. I havn't had many recent additions to the tank. I bought some really healthy swordtails a week or so ago, and they are fine, as are all of the other fish. My angelfish is acting fine, he is eating, and swimming alot. I am really scared, theis is one of my favorite fish, and i would hate to loose him.

I took some really crappy pics really quickly, but you can still see the bumps pretty quickly


They bumps are raised.... they are white, and they are only on the angels head, on either side.

Should i QT him?

Here are the pics... he has a gill defect, so don't let that creep you out. could that have anything to do with the bumps?

I have had ick before, MANY MANY MANY times.. this is not like any ick i have ever seen.

ANY HELP WOULD BE VERY GREATLY APPRECIATED

 

[Zagz]

It looks to me like a kind of fungus. Is it cottony? It looks like it from the pics.

 

[WaterPond]

somewhat cottony. It is not really soft though. They look more like mosquito bites on a fish... :?

 

[Zagz]

Hmmm that's a bit odd, let me do a bit of digging.

 

[Zagz]

The spots don't have holes in them at all do they? Trying to rule out HITH.

Check this page and see if anything seems to match. It has pics and some pics seems similar to your fish but pics can be misleading.

 

[WaterPond]

hmm...

well, do you think he should be QT's as a precaution... them start treating after we figure this one out?

 

[Zagz]

Never can hurt to QT for the sake of other fish. It definately looks like ich but at the same time it doesn't.

 

[BillD]

Looks like it could be HITH. Difficult to tell for sure from the pictures.

 

[WaterPond]

uuuuggggh! well, he is going strait into QT...

is there any hope for him, i have melafix and pimafix... any help there?

Is it contageous?

As you can see in the last pic, there are little things all around his eyes too. Doing a little research it does look very much like HITH

i will try to get better pics once i have him in QT...

 

[kickeralpine]

by far im no expert but my oscar would get bumps like that also mostly on his head dont know what its called some told me ich but dont know for sure. guy at the pet store told me to put a coulpe tea spoons of salt in the water and i can say this with in a couple of days it was gone dont know if it will work for you but did work for me maybe give it a try .

 

[WaterPond]

i might do that. He definately does have hole in the head though too.

Looks exactly like the start of it from all the pics i have seen

 

[Zagz]

I was afraid of that. That's what it looked like to me too. Look for medications containing metronidazole.

 

[drummerj]

what have you been feeding?

 

[WaterPond]

bloodworm on weekends
high quality flakes, wardley shrimp pellets and peas during the week... ]

weekely water changes... along with gravel vaccuming.

I pretty much try to have the water perfect. All params are fine as you can see.

Uggggh... what do i do

I QTd him... he went really pale when i acclimated him into the QT tank. floated him for an hour... anddrip acclimated for an hour so it wouldent sress him out too much.

Uggghhh. I can already tell this is going to result in the death of my angel... i am going to try my best though...

 

[Zagz]

Keep the faith! What I do for QT is take the water out of the main tank and put it in the QT. I run extra sponges on my regular tanks so my QT tanks are ready to go. My QT tanks are bare bottom so I don't worry about substrate. This way the fish don't have to be acclimated at all. I don't know what meds are available around you but the metronidazole is likely to be your best bet. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[WaterPond]

Update...

last count there well over 15 holes in my angels head... He is in QT, and is staying strong.

Not much else i can really say. I got a med that says it treats hole in the head, but does not contain metronidazole, in fact, that is only available though a vet.

 

[locorosa]

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/information/Diseases.htm#HLLE


Interesting that all the sites I checked said it's caused by water quality, and diet. One other common thing with this is the fish is prone to fungal infections and many recommend treating with meds for that as well. In light of that, I'd recommend continuing the treatment for fungal infections.
It's also recommended to go with a multi-treatment plan so I'd try as many of the recommendations as possible.
GOOD LUCK!

 

[Jarred Darque]

Is there any chance that you can get some good pics? I recently lost a tank full of angels to either HITH that affected the entire body, including fins, or a seriousviral infection.