Hith Treatment Thats Safe With Crayfish?

[Spishkey]

i need to treat my oscars for HITH, its terrible (not caused by me may i add, i have just recieved them back after an 8 week absence)

im guessing its caused by bad water quality. last time i treated an oscar for HITH i used exit hexamita but it took a long time to work.

will pristine water conditions be enough on its own to cure HITH (ive read that somewhere) or will it need a medication to sort out?

is there any meds that are safe to use with crayfish in the tank?

(there are four in there, 2 young and two adult, the female is currently carrying eggs)

 

[Colin_T]

good water quality and a clean environment will help prevent HITH and sometimes even bring about a cure if it isn't very advanced. However, if the fish has been infected for a while and there are big holes with puss coming out, then you should treat them.

I don't know if any of the medications affect crustaceans but I wouldn't try it. Move the crayfish into a holding tub while you treat.

 

[Tolak]

Besides really clean water, a quality cichlid pellet soaked in liquid vitamin will help. I feed my oscar vitamin enriched pellets at least once weekly.

Besides a vitamin deficiency, carbon has been indirectly implicated in HITH, so if you are running carbon remove it.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi Tolak

out of curiosty, how does carbon get implicated with HITH? Is it old carbon, dirty carbon, or something else?

 

[Tolak]

I would have to look back, I probably have a link to a couple articles on an old computer. If I remember correctly, it had something to do with the idea of the tiny stray particles of carbon being a sort of irritant.

No direct link, but by the odds it seems that there is a higher percentage of aquarists running carbon that have to deal with HITH than those that are not.

 

[bitteraspects]

prestine water and a good VARIED diet, will cure it. you do no NEED medication.
also you will want to bump up the temp in the tank to 85 (28-30c)
you can also use aquarium salt if any of the wounds are open sores. 1 tbsp/gal

 

[Colin_T]

I would have to look back, I probably have a link to a couple articles on an old computer. If I remember correctly, it had something to do with the idea of the tiny stray particles of carbon being a sort of irritant.
No direct link, but by the odds it seems that there is a higher percentage of aquarists running carbon that have to deal with HITH than those that are not.

fair enough. I thought it might have been people using carbon don't maintain their filters as often because a lot of shops sell carbon and say clean the filter when it needs it. Rather than telling people what carbon is for and to clean their filter regularly.
But very fine particles of carbon could irritate the fish and once the skin is damaged the disease organism has access to a new host.

Interesting, but annoying because now I have to think about it

 

[Spishkey]

dont have carbon running in the tank

where would i get liquid vitamins to soak their pellets in?

there are no puss in the wounds, just craters, i dont know if the guy had already been treating them, if so he didnt mention it.

dont think i can add salt due to the catfish in the tank?

now they are bak in pristine water maybe it will help, i'll give it a week and see if theres any improvement, if not looks like i'll have to find an oscar sized hospital tank to treat them in seperate from the tank!

 

[Tolak]

You could get liquid multi vitamins that are used for infants at most any drug store.

 

[Spishkey]

you can use those on fish? i have loads in the house if those ones are safe!