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Hello,

I'm trying to figure out if my discus had hole in the head. He is by far the alpha in the tank, great appetite, acts very healthy.

I just noticed today he has what look like small scoops of flesh on each side of his head, a couple mm across. The weird thing is there is no discoloration. Since he's a pigeonblood with wild bright orange coloration and there is no discoloration here, I just noticed on close inspection.

This is a well established tank (2 yrs), weekly 20% water changes and 0ppm on the condition parameters. I do use quite a bit of carbon, which I will change out for Peat, and on the advice of a fellow fish-profiler, I just recently went back to tetra color bits for more of the feeding rather than just bloodworms.

My current stock level is under 1 inch per gallon.

I guess my question is whether this sounds like hole in the head. It IS behind the eye area on either side, but there is no discoloration, and it looks almost like someone took a bite out of him, rather than an actual hole.

Thanks for any replies and advice!

OOoh, good advice on those TetraBits!

It may or may not be "hole in the head" (HITH). The pits that form on the sensory pores of large fish are better described as "head lateral line erosion" (HLLE). Generally the conditions come from diet and water quality.

I doubt that the all bloodworms, all the time diet would cause an extreme dietary deficiency, but an inch of discus per gallon is a little like 2 inches of any other fish or more per gallon. The 20% weekly water changes may be insufficient for your fish. Bump it up to two or three 20% water changes per week and don't be afraid if it goes a little over, like 50%.

Try the increased water changes for a week to see if it has any effect on the "pits".



__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Thanks Bob. You're my fish mentor.

try to find a picture of hith on the net or wherever,then compare this with your discus,if it is hith ACT FAST,because this can be lethal if untreated,the sad thing is that there is really nothing you can buy for just treating hith,its more of a combonation of procedures,i asked my local vet what he did when his oscars had hith,he basicly said that there is 3 effective ways of treating hith,depending on how addvanced the parasite is.if you would like to here them just let me know,this was a long and hard process for me,it was my first time dealing with this(hith)but,i did treat them succsessfully.but find out if it is hith,alot of probs come with treating sick fish by people not being 100% sure of what the sickness is,then treating with the wrong meds.