posted 02-18-2004 11:39 PM         

I have been having them since an year.

Should i treat him with maracyn or is there a better one at the initial stages of the disease.

posted 02-19-2004 09:44 AM         

Normal sensory pits:

Hole in the head is when these sensory pits become erroded (it can also occur with the lateral line).

Early/mild HITH:

Advanced HITH:
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There's still a lot of mystery about what actually causes it, but the more common theories are a lack of vitamins and/or poor diet and high levels of nitrAtes as well as generally poor water conditions (caused by overcrowding, not enough filtration, or poor tank maintenance).

It used to be thought that a flagellate called hexamita was a cause since it is often found in cases of HITH. However it is now thought to be more of a secondary infection.

HITH actually isn't that difficult to treat since it is caused by poor diet and/or bad water conditions; both of which can easily be remedied.

One of the first things to do is make sure your tank is clean. This means keeping a close eye on the water parameters (they should be ammonia=0, nitrIte=0, & nitrAte<20), and having enough filtration and cleaning the tank often enough to keep those levels in check. But it should be noted that if your tank is too small or overstocked, it will be nearly impossible to keep nitrAtes below 20ppm.

They should also be given a nice varied diet that does not include feeder fish (but that's another topic all by itself). It's also a good idea to suppliment their diet with vitamins. There's a couple ways to do this. You can either find pelleted food that already has supplimental vitamins (I've found that HBH Oscar Show contains a lot of vitamins) or add the vitamins yourself by soaking their pellets in a liquid multivitamin (people multivitamins are fine).

Adding MelaFix (I love this stuff) and/or aquarium salt should also help the wound heal.

If none of that seems to help, thre's a chance that a secondary hexamita infection is preventing the HITH from healing. You can try getting some medication that treats the Hexamita, such as Metronidazole & Hex-a-mit.

That being said, it really doesn't sound like your oscar has HITH. It sounds more like a bruise to me. Could you post a pic so I could be sure?

Also, you said: "Ammonia levels are too low so are nitrates" Ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte can never be too low; the lower the better. Like I said before, ammonia and nitrIte should be 0ppm and nitrAtes should be below 20ppm (anything above those is toxic).

posted 02-22-2004 10:33 PM         

To that 2nd picture. So I bought some metronidazole and treated as instructed for about 2 weeks. By then, the hole has finally started filling in a little so I stoped the metronidazole and went back to using Melafix. Another couple of weeks later, it was this size:

So I stopped using meds and just let it heal on it's own. He now has a little indented scar, but there is no exposed flesh so I consider it completely healed.

And FWIW, I have absolutely no idea how he got HITH in the first place because my water parameters have always been fine and I feed him a nice varied diet.

posted 02-22-2004 10:48 PM         

Vitamin A, B1, B2, B6, B12, C, D3, E, K3, Biotin, Choline, Folic Acid, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Manganese, Potassium, Zinc, Selenium

I had tried soaking their pellets in Centrum liquid multivitamin, but they refused to eat it (can't blame them; it smells awful!). They really like the Oscar Show and I think all the vitamins in it may have helped some.