The Puffer Forum

It looks like it could be a roundworm. Can you get him into quarantine?

I guess I don't need to tell you that tank is grossly overstocked (kising gouramis grow to a foot, fopr starters) & that there aren't large enough of often enough WC going on on there? My sig says it all! Healthy fish live in clean water. The fish in there will continue to get sick, as long as this persists.

BTW, that pimple looks like the beginnings of Hole-in-the-head disease.

and hole in the head is caused by stress... bad water conditions.... or maybe territory arguements could lead to this...

the only way to prevent more fish getting ill is to split the tank inhabitants into two or more tanks... or take some to the LFS....

Don't you keep puffs? How do you manage without a test kit?

No idea. And yes, I did tell my mom that KGs and severums get huge, but she STILL wanted to get them. Anybody know how to treat roundworms/hole in the head/cysts? Thanks for all the advice, everybody!

Do a search, that's what I would do. Tons of info out on that disease. Won't get better in their present tank conditions though. She's just going to continue getting sick fish, until she loses everything.

oscars are quite prone to hole in the head...

if it is that, and you want to research it have a look on oscar forums... it has some good methods to reverse the decline of the fish, although i don't think it ever heals back up.

Not sure about the others....

how long has the fish been in there... is it new? Has there been any new fish recently...

just trying to establish if something has brought it into the tank, or if it has developed from nowhere.. so to speak...

It's actually a parasite called, Hexamita, I believe. Not sure about the spelling. Brought out by stress & poor water quality, prominant in large cichlids.

Hexamita is a flagellated protozoan that can be found in the intestine of healthy and sick fish. It is of particular importance in angel fish and discus. It can also cause problems in oscars and African cichlids, and other fish. Stress, particularly caused by poor water quality or inadequate nutrition, seems to be associated with increases in the number of flagellates in the gut and development of clinical disease. Elimination of stress and correction of husbandry will help correct an outbreak of hexamitiasis. Metronidazole provided as a medicated feed or a bath is an effective treatment and even severely affected fish often respond to therapy.

Listen to PP!

Well, thanks for all the help, guys, but she won't listen to me. Sorry.

People have to learn lessons one way or another. It's good you tried to help though Groove.

Yeah, well, I'm a bajillion times as stubborn as her

LOL, her 1" pink kissers are adults? Ask her to look up the adult sizes of her fish & tank requirements of each. What does she mean square inch of fish? Is she going by the ridiculous 1"/g rule? You said there are 50 fish in there & it's only a 55g tank.

Wasn't there a 1 square inch of fish rule for beginners? Again, sorry guys.

It's a ridiculous rule for any fish over 1-2". It's for fish like 1" neons--you could keep 10 of them in a 10g tank or 5 2" guppies in there. You certainly wouldn't keep a 10" Oscar in a 10g!

I thought I read it somewhere on TPF a long time ago. Yes, it is ridiculous, but it is a bit smarter than the 1 inch per gallon rule. A 10 inch oscar would be about, say, 4 inches high, and two inches thick. That adds up to 80 Gallons for that big boy! Well, yeah, it is ridiculous, but it's much better than the first rule.