Whitehead

[weird]

I noticed my pigeon blood has a huge whitehead .... I feel like squeezing it as it looks like a massive zit !

Anyone know what this is. No other discus or fish are showing anything like this or whitespot. Is this benign ?

Any help appreciated.

[weird]

Is this anchor worm ? Shoot I have googled and this does not look good.

Should I remove the fish and pull of the 'pimple' with tweezers ?

Is there medication I can use to treat the tank ?

[weird]

OK, I actually pulled the guy from the tank, armed with squeezer ... but what was so obvious in the tank ... became very hard to see when the guy was out of the tank. I don't mind another attempt. I hope I am not over reacting to this and hope there is a better treatment. Not happy :( :(

BTW the pigeon blood I pulled from the tank is eating like nothing happened 15 mins later ... discus are invincible !

[weird]

I found this on http://www.adelaideaquariums.com.au/faqs/disease/showdis.asp?DiseaseID=1

"Treatment: Adult worms can be removed from the fish with tweezers. Hold the fish in a damp cloth and gently pull the worm out, being careful not to rupture the eggs sacs. Treat the aquarium with trichlorphon, or sterazin where catfish are present, since many catfish are senstive to trichlorphon. Use two doses, ten days apart. Keep the water clean to prevent any secondary infection of the wounds. Where the fish tolerate it, 3 to 5g salt per litre can be added to aid treatment."

As I have loaches present I am guessing I should go with sterazin ?????

Does anyone know where I can pick some up ????

Have I made the right diagnosis ???

[DiscusMan]

I dont think that those pimple like things are anchor worms.

I had these on my fish before as well and within a coupl eof days they cleared up. I dont have any idea as to what they actually are however so i am very interested in knowing the answer.

I agree it does look like a big zit on the fish. I think that the worms dont look like the zit

Wayne

[DiscusMan]

Did a google search for Discus Pimple adn got these back

http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/articles/hexamita.html which pimple would mean hole in the head disease

http://www.awforum.net/discus/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=303&whichpage=2 Which says you need to do more water changes.

http://www.awforum.net/discus/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=303&whichpage=2 talks about hole in teh ehad and diet based cause

I would say analyse what you are doing water change wise and feeding wise and maybe we can comment on that

Wayne

[DiscusMan]

i seen this one as well.

http://www.erdingtonaquatics.com/treatment/treatments.html

Basically the zit is in fact a zit like we get. It is an infection on teh skin. The thing is to work out what its from.

THe link above says it could be Velvet or another protozoan disease as did a couple of the other ones. Raise temp to do this one i think.

Lots of stuff to read but no real help yet sorry.

Wayne

[dreamer]

i have read it somewhere that this zit 'explode' and it turned into a big hole ....ewwww
hope this is not the case here .....

[weird]

Ouch !!!! I hope not.

My nerves have been calmed quite abit. Spoke to Kev, and reading Wayne's posts above it does not sound like anchor worm.

<wooooooooooooooooo !!! that is a really big sigh of relief>

Goes to show a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and it always pays to get a second opinion !

I guess I will have to watch the tank for the next couple of days.

[DiscusMan]

One of those sites said that anchor worm is very rare in aquariums and mostly comes from teh introduction of a wild caught fish into your tank.

I just would be doing some extra wc's and observing closely

Wayne

[weird]

ATM it looks like it is turning into whitespot with a few more whiteheads appearing on fin... oh well, massive water changes, not fun .... buckets !

Increasing heat, and adding salt ... hopefully will hit it early. Thanks everyone, hopefully that is all it is.

[Mattzilla]

my discus have had them from time to time before and they have always just gone away after a while and not bothered the fish at all.... no need to worry i guess unless they spread a lot and the fish shows signs of stress

[DiscusMan]

Dave,

how about an update to tell us how this is going for you.

Also what did you end up doing and did it work etc etc.

Wayne

[weird]

Well the next day, the original zit disappeared. But a few white specs developed on the top fin. I was worried this was the beginning of a white spot outbreak, so I added some aquarium salt, one teaspoon per 20 litres ... 18 teapsoons ... dissolved while doing a water change ... increased temperature to 31 degrees .... did 2 days of approx 40% water changes .... spots all gone. Been over a week and no signs of white zits on him (he ... he ... cheaky bugger cause I know he is a dad ... I see wiggling from eggs !) or any other fish.

Thanx guys. :D

[DiscusMan]

Dave thanks for that.

Salt and water changes wins again plus the temp increase.

Happy endings are good.

Wayne

[DiscusMan]

Dave maybe this treatment has changed the water parameter to be what the fish wanted which made them breed. Maybe the large water changes also.

strange how things work out.

Wayne

[Drew]

Hey I have been starting to wonder what these white spots are on my Female. I didnt even think that it's a worm. My problem is that my Discus have little ones at the moment. There now about 4days old and are starting to get flighty so was thinking about seperateing them. First timer here.

Was thinking that i will remove the babies, and do a mass water change.

[ozarowana]

I know that it is caused by poor water quality. Only one of mine suffers from it, usually from being too busy to do water changes. It clears up after getting back into the changing water routine.

[weird]

Water changes were the key I think Wayne, I am sure that is why they spawned. I did an ammonia and nitrite test today, and ammonia was higher than what I liked/expected. 2 weeks ago I removed a small sponge filter (which I originally used to seed the tank but never removed) and gave it to a tank I thought was more deserving and replaced it with a 2nd cannister filter. The cannister has not really kicked in yet ... so until then looks like I will be carrying the bucket abit more ... I am planning on adding quite a few background plants (potted) in the next fortnight, hopefully this will help too. 4x2x2 foot tank.

[Drew]

Ok, I done a water change and my water quality is the worse it has ever been. Don't no what has caused it to go funny all of a suden. But it seems that this fungi that was growing on my female is now growing well on the wooden log i have in the tank. Its not like a pimple that showed up on the female but its a white fungi that is spreading along the log. I don't have all these water tester that some of you guys have i usually just check the PH. (which is fine) Think i might go and get some products from the shops that kills algi. (maybe its time to get that new filter i was looking at.)

[ozarowana]

Drew I think the fungus on the wood is a seperate issue. Are the white spots on your fish little pinhead sizes or do they look bigger?

Why do you say your water quality is worse? Where abouts in north bris are you located?