Skin lesions on male Ocean Green

[skoom]

Dear Friends,

My 5'' ocean green developed these white scaley lesions along both lateral lines, around the tail area and over the forehead. He is currently breeding in a pair in the community tank. These lesions appeared about 2 days ago. I hope it is not hex. I have included a picture. He has never showed illness before and is still eating. Haven't seen if he has had jelly poo yet. All other fish in the tank are fine. At first i thought he was darkening up for breeding...hmmm

I have added half dose pimafix but doesn't seem to be responding.

T 28 Amm 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 20 pH 7.0

I have a 330L tank, with 5 discus and few other community fish.

Any advice is much appreciated.

These pictures seem to understate the seriousness of the real fish i think...

[Ben]

Hi Skoom,
how many and how big are the fry?
it just could be that the young ones are eating the OG.
Some times the fry can eat away at one or both of the parents, this does not do much harm, but can be if left alone.


I have experienced the same thing.
But before we put that it down to that i would like to hear from others.

Ben

[Merrilyn]

Skoom, these fish don't have fry on thier backs yet, do they?

It looks to me like the start of head and lateral line erosion, also known as hexemita.

Your nitrates are high, at 20. Try to keep them below 10, and preferably around 5. Larger and more frequent water changes are needed at the moment. Try doing one big change now, of say 50% and then do daily changes of around 20 % for a week or two.

I'll think you'll find those scaley patches on the head will erupt into holes, and then you have a full blown case of hex.

Try the water changes first. Add more variety to the diet, and observe the fish for signs of white, jelly like droppings.

Clean water, and good food can sometimes effect a 'cure'. Cases that don't respond to that treatment will need to be treated with an antibiotic like Metro in a hospital tank.

[skoom]

Yeah I had a bad feeling that it would be hex. It seems like it's a textbook description of lateral line erosion and the 'hole in the head' symptoms.

The fries are not on the backs yet, as a matter of fact, i think they ate them all this time because they spawned in the community tank.

I have a cycled hospital tank ready. I think I'll put him into it and add metronidazole.

Will keep up to date.

I can't remember the dosage off the top of my head. I think it's about 200mg per 40L every eight hours for three days. correct?

no light of course.

[skoom]

I just checked the dosages in the sticky in the illness and medication forum. Thanks.

Concerned but hopefully i am in control of the illness.

[Benny]

if the fish is still eating, soak the food (BW, tetrabits, whatever) in the metro for 10 mins before feeding/medicating... I sucessfully treated my fellas with LLE using this method..

Benny