Blue Acara - listless, unbalanced, deteriorating: possible hole-in-head disease?

[charliek]

Hi all - I have a male Blue Acara, approx 11 months old, 5" nose to caudal peduncle, very active, feeds well, same tankmates (another acara, and some lemon tetra) since setup.

Yesterday was listless and sullen, didn't rise for food. Today, listless, sullen, not feeding, unbalanced, and seems to be seeking shelter. Video at end of post.

No signs of scales lifting, no signs of fungal patches or visible hitchhikers.

I'm wondering if it's hole-in-head, because a week or two ago this fish had a visible lesion on its forehead. At the time, I took to being because he's a playful chonk and may have bumped into some decoration. The lesion healed within days without intervention. I'd not heard of hole in the head then, or may have paid more attention.

No obvious lesions on head or lateral line today, but difficult to be sure - I'm not at home, the fish is hiding, and my wife isn't a fish person

180 litre tank including sump. Water parameters: undetectable ammonia or nitrite, nitrate between 10-20ppm. dGH 5, pH 7. Quality liquid tests. Numbers stable over time. Stock: 2 acara, 10 lemon tetra, 1 juvenile bristlenose ancistrus, two nerite snails, and a couple of shrimp with suicidal filter-sock tendancies. Sump full of alfagrog, running active carbon (also HTIH significant).

I've ordered some Waterlife Octozin and API Melafix (I'm UK based), and talked my wife through setting up a 20ltr bucket for isolation/treatment when I get home tomorrow. She's not confident to catch and isolate the fish alone.

Questions - is HITH my most likely diagnosis? Should I treat the tank with Octo, or isolate and treat in bucket: if I missed HITH last week, I'm assuming there's already Hexamita in the tank and the other Acara, at least, likely affected too? Can I wait until tomorrow (at this point it's possible wife is as stressed as fish)? Should I be trying other diagnosis first?

Thanks!

Charlie

 

[Ichthys]

Questions - is HITH my most likely diagnosis?

No. HITH is slow to develop and you’d see it first as tiny holes that gradually grow bigger. My hunch is the thing it ran into last time is still there, in a very bad place for when the fish gets chased. Is there any chasing at all with these two? Or do they panic when the light goes on or off…? Anything else disturbing them?

 

[charliek]

No. HITH is slow to develop and you’d see it first as tiny holes that gradually grow bigger. My hunch is the thing it ran into last time is still there, in a very bad place for when the fish gets chased. Is there any chasing at all with these two? Or do they panic when the light goes on or off…? Anything else disturbing them?

He's by far the larger of the two acara (both male) and any chasing I've seen has been by him, not of him.

Generally it's only about can he get to a choice titbit before his brother. I did look for any obvious protrusions in the tank - there's bogwood roots in there - but a) there's nothing obvious, and he may have dislodged whatever it was when he hit it, and b) that was the first and only injury I noticed in almost a year, and not repeated in the weeks since.

The lights are programmed on a roughly circadian rhythm and ramp smoothly - so there's not generally a sudden on/off. They get very excited when the Food God enters the room (regardless of it being feeding time or not) but nothing 'disturbing' I wouldn't say.

In terms of his current condition - any obvious next steps?

 

[Ichthys]

Not sure what to suggest because it doesn’t look well at all, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t last much longer. It’s an old fish. It may be dying of old age. Various things can go wrong when that happens.
Are you sure the nitrates are low? Do you bang the reagents against a solid surface before you shake them? Is the test kit in date? How much water do you change and how often?

 

[charliek]

Not sure what to suggest because it doesn’t look well at all, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t last much longer. It’s an old fish. It may be dying of old age. Various things can go wrong when that happens.
Are you sure the nitrates are low? Do you bang the reagents against a solid surface before you shake them? Is the test kit in date? How much water do you change and how often?

Poor chap certainly doesn't look happy, I agree. He's 11 months old, not 11 years - so not old.

I don't tend to bang (it's a JBL ProAqua kit which has glass vials), but I shake very vigorously, and encouraged Mrs to do the same. Nitrates tend to be very low in that tank, because it has a lot of plants in it (including emersed pothos and monstera) so I trust the low reading ... but if you think this fish is exhibiting nitrate-related issues, I'll test again.

I change roughly 78 litres every week.

 

[Essjay]

Many nitrate testers have two bottles of liquid reagents and one of then needs to be tapped on a worktop before use to break up the sediment which settles on the bottom then shaken well to get it into the liquid. However the JBL nitrate tester has this reagent in powder form so the tapping and shaking of the bottles doesn't apply with this brand.

 

[Colin_T]

The fish is covered in excess mucous and has red patches on it. The excess mucous (creamy white film over the head, body and fins) is caused by poor water quality or something in the water irritating the fish.

The red on the body could be bacterial or just colouration but blue acaras don't normally have red or pink colouration.

Octozin and Melafix probably won't make any difference so I would cancel them if you can.

The tank has blue green algae (Cyanobacter bacteria) on the substrate and that is normally caused by too many nutrients (in particular dry food).

I would clean the glass, filter, and do a massive water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a weeks. See how it looks after the tank has been cleaned.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine or chloramine before it's added to the tank.

I don't have high hopes for its survival