Please help! Hole-in-head disease?

[Azurrazor]

Hi.
My male Apisto Macmasteri suddenly fell ill with slightly pale colors, stringy white poo and thin stomach (he never stopped eating, though), and a little more rapid breathing. A day or two later he was dead. Now that I've had time to do some investigation I'm starting to wonder if I have figured out what he died from. I looked back at some pictures and I see tiny pinholes between the nostriles (above mouth), and I wonder if he succumbed to Hole-in-head-disease? What do you think?
More importantly, should I now treat the whole tank with Esha Hexamite in case it has spread without my knowledge? I've read it can linger for more than a month! I'm sincerely worried that it will infect my other Apistos ++.

Regards
Alexander Storsve
Norway

 

[MacZ]

The holes are normal. Those are sensory pores HITH looks very different, when these erode massively and get infected.

The way the fish passed is quite typical for dwarf cichlids to go. The fish looked quite old. No need to worry the other fish are going to contract it. It's a stress and/or age induced loss of immune response, often followed by a system shutdown and quick succumbing to opportunistic bacteria.

EsHa Hexamita doesn't contain anything against Spironucleus/Hexamita. The stuff is a snake oil. Don't even buy it. (Or anything by that company for that matter.)

 

[Azurrazor]

Thanks! That was relieving to read. Could you please enlighten me about the Esha product critizism? Which products do you use or have at hand in case of disease?

Regards
Alexander

 

[MacZ]

ESHa meds are basically the same 3-4 active ingredients in different combinations over and over again, often with no reasoning. E.g. the ingredients of eSHa Hexamita are usually used to treat external parasites. The stuff doesn't get into the fish where internal parasites have to be treated in situ.

Their all-in-one medications Exit and 2000 are both also basically the same and contain ingredients that are dangerous to whole families of fish e.g. catfish.

As you are located in Norway at least the manufacturers I prefer are available to you, which are JBL and Sera. Unfortunately due to EU-regulations many meds have been taken out of production as basically no companies see it economically useful going through the pr8cess if getting their meds aproved. Instead they either stopped selling the meds in question in Europe or stopped production entirely. JBL for example is taking their whole line of meds out if production.

I usually have something against internal parasites at hand (dewormer and something separate for flagellates). Everything else is a case to case thing. Thankfully since I stick to having a display tank and I only set up a quarantine when needed (which is maybe once every 12-18 months) I have basically no need to keep anything in stock. Plus the fact most effective meds are not available anymore.

I put my money on prevention. Careful choice of sources and quarantine if I deem it necessary. Often makes the use of meds obsolete.