Sick Ram

[johnnyjtaylor]

One of my rams has something nasty eating away at the flesh on his head and I dont know what it is or how to cure it.
I bought a pair and they came with the standard free dose of whitespot from the lfs ,which I treated with myxazin(Iknow its not strictly for whitespot but it works and dosent kill my neons like other whitespot treatments). During this treatment I noticed two small 'holes' in the front of his head that looked like they might have pus in them. After the whitespot cleared up and after a big water change I treated with pimafix and melafix with no improvement(infact it got worse like it is now). After another water change I treated the whole tank with octozin as someone suggested to me it might be hole in the head, again no improvement and with his getting weaker his partner started picking on him. Now he is in my 10 gallon hospital tank being treated with pimafix and melafix. His poo is stringy and white/clear, his breathing is quite fast and he dosent eat much. I dont know what to try next. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[K.J.]

Probably Hole In the Head disease, use this and this link to find out more about it. It affects cichlids mostly, so it sounds like what he's got.

 

[vinylman]

Hi Johnny,
If whitespot is a regular ocurrence at your LFS, I'd go elsewhere. You really need something to treat whitespot that is meant to do the job. Make sure you always have a bottle of Protozin around, it's worth it's weight in gold and will do the job if you follow the intructions to the letter. It won't affect the filter bacteria, either.