Best treatment for holes in head disease

Hi professor.i'v got a breeding group of rift lake cichlids..copadichromis trewevasae,which i am keeping in my show tank..they were shipped from malawi about 10months ago..one male started developing groups of holes around his eyes..each hole is about 1mm in diameter n clear..he is otherwise healthy..eating n even breeding..what treatment would you advise to help cure it?

 

Hi Sarf,

I am not an authority on Malawis but Hole in the Head disease also is/was common in Discus as a result of which I am fully aware of the problem.

Hole in the Head is caused by flagellate organisms which can be treated easily with Metranidazole at 7 mg/litre. You can go to any pharmacy and buy any generic metranidazole tablets, squash them fine between two teaspoons and add this to the tank. Repeat the treatment after 4-5 days after a fairly large water change. This medication does absolutely nothing to biological filters.

However, you should know that the reason why this disease does become a problem and that is that there is a shortage of vitamin C in the diet. Malawis are largely vegetarian as a result of which their natural diet includes lots of algae which contain enough vitamin C. I would advise that you feed some green veggies, baby marrow and other things, ask the Malawi experts what they will eat, and then you need to feed them with a granulate or high quality flake that contains enough vitamin C.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Thanks for the advice professor..i will seperate the fish n treat them..will also mix up a batch of frozen food with some vitamin c to feed them

 

Sarf,

Don't treat the one fish separately, treat the whole tank as all the fish have got the disease, but they are not showing symptoms yet.

Kind regards,

Dirk