Pitting disease in ornamental fish: Especially discus or scalars often fight with the dreaded hole disease. This shows up as holes in the skin and bone/cartilage of the fish. How can you hole disease treat and which ones causes and symptoms there is to. Is there a way to prevent hole sickness? We are now going to address these questions.
Symptoms and diagnosis of hole disease
Before you start treatment, you have to be able to recognize and interpret the symptoms correctly. This is the only way to ensure successful treatment. Hole disease usually begins with white spots and spots all over the body. First, however, these are visible in the header area. There is a reason for that, but more on that later. At the beginning of the disease, a whitish tissue and liquid comes out of the white spots, which is difficult to interpret. If the disease worsens, there are also real holes in the head area. On the body area, pimples usually grow out of the body. Visually, you should be able to see what the hole disease looks like in the attached pictures. Basically it is very easy to determine.
Not all fish are affected. Pithole disease has not yet been seen in tetras or in livebearers. Most of these occur in cichlids. Including especially discus and scalar. But other cichlids can also contract hole-in-the-hole disease. Now we come to the causes of hole disease.
Causes of hole disease
There are very different opinions in the relevant literature. It also seems that the ultimate and ultimate cause has not yet been found. However, many aquarists attribute hole-in-the-hole disease to a vitamin deficiency. This causes disease in the intestines. The so-called intestinal flagellates were usually found in the intestines of the diseased fish. These intestinal flagellates are parasites that settle in the intestines of the animals. A small number is not a problem. However, if a larger number occurs as a result of vitamin deficiency, these could be responsible for triggering the hole-in-the-hole disease.
Caution is also required when it comes to contagion, because the intestinal flagellates are also released in the aquarium in the excretions of the sick animals. These can then also be ingested by animals that are still healthy.
The intestinal flagellates ensure that there is also a disturbed digestion. Damage to the intestinal mucosa can be another consequence of intestinal flagellates. This in turn triggers a chain reaction in the fish due to the nutrient and vitamin deficiency. Nutrients, minerals and also vitamin have to be obtained from other parts of the body. This could then happen from the bone plates on the head and that is why the holes are created there. The breakdown of this cartilage can also tear the skin and the remaining cartilage fluid can leak out of these openings. That's why you usually see the pimples on the fish in connection with the hole disease. If there is no more liquid, then the holes appear. What exactly accounts for the deficiency and the formation of the intestinal flagellates remains questionable. In addition to the vitamin deficiency already mentioned, you can also read reports about an imbalance of the ions in the aquarium water. The conductance and also the calcium content can play a role here.
treatment of hole disease
Before you start the drug treatment, you should ensure that the fish get enough vitamins and minerals with a balanced feed and additional preparations. There are many preparations that can be added to the feed. A water change is also always recommended, because this can also restore a balance and can also reduce the intestinal flagellates, which have already spread in the aquarium.
Further treatment is carried out with special preparations such as the JBL Spirohexol Plus 250 or with the preparation of Sera Flagellol which contains the active ingredient nitro, thiazole. This works not only against the hole disease, but also against the intestinal flagellates. We have also faded away both preparations for you here accordingly.
That should get the disease under control. But as with the white spot disease and others, it is also important to recognize the symptoms in good time. pictures of jbl.de