HITH - Revisited

[FishKing5]

Natural soft water is different from softened water. Natural soft water such as black water has high tannic acid, near zero hardness, and low dissolved ions with conductivity under 100. Household softened water is an ion exchange process that replaced calcium with sodium. The resulting water, though low in hardness, is high in dissolved sodium with conductivity in the 1000s, To replicate natural soft water, you have to mix in with DO or rainwater, or filter with peat to remove ions and add tannic acid.

The pathogens that cause HITH are ubiquitous and opportunistic ,depending on the fish resistance and environment conditions. I don't know why hard water fish are more resistance to HITH than soft water fish. If you medicate your fish but don't change the water chemistry or environmental conditions, even if you can achieve temporary cure, your vulnerable fish will be reinfected and you are wasting your effort.

I've raised soft water fish such as geos and discus in normal household tap water for years and have never came across this problem until now. I do have a ro/di unit that I'm thinking of putting to use now mixed with some tap water. Both my vieja and geos along with true parrots are all showing they have HITH so both hard and soft water fish

 

[FishKing5]

We have hard water here, and I have never seen melanura , most certainly not juveniles, come down with HITH.

I got most my fish from rapps. Do you think these fish had this when I got them from him and passed it on to others? I'm absolutely stuck on the answer for all this. Makes no sense to me at all

 

[FishKing5]

I'm seriously at the point of just getting rid of all the fish that have the HITH if they don't get better in the next 2 weeks. This is extremely annoying ha. I do daily water changes while treating with metro, vacuum the substrate every other day, feed very good food to them, and have done everything that's been told to me. The fish all eat super well and act totally healthy like they don't have any disease at all so it's very confusing to me.

 

[viejafish]

Discus can be raised but not bred successfully in hard tap water. But discuss keepers also manage the water differently. They keep the water very warm and near pristine conditions by doing daily WC, and avoid mixing with other fish except a few to prevent introduction of pathogens. I have no luck with black water fish and after a few failures, I keep only hard water species.

 

[FishKing5]

Discus can be raised but not bred successfully in hard tap water. But discuss keepers also manage the water differently. They keep the water very warm and near pristine conditions by doing daily WC, and avoid mixing with other fish except a few to prevent introduction of pathogens. I have no luck with black water fish and after a few failures, I keep only hard water species.

Ya I kept discus for 8 years and would age their water for 24 hours with a heater and air pump, especially in the winter time to eliminate pH spikes and had great success raising them. When I bred them I mixed in mostly RO water with a little tap. Also had great success with that. Never have I ever had issues raising the fish I have now in normal tap water until now. I'm stumped

 

[RD.]

July 4th bump .....

 

[Dieselhybrid]

This a great thread to compliment your first sticky on your subject. I appreciate you repeatedly bumping this over the years, as I just discovered it now. I learned a lot in regards to metro dosing by Dr. Naga. It's hard to find a successful regimen for treating with this drug in the water column. I've had such little success I only resort to feeding it or forcing into the stomach, It's great to finally have a reliable protocol to use in baths and submersions.

Thank you RD.

 

[Dieselhybrid]

This a great thread to compliment your first sticky on your subject. I appreciate you repeatedly bumping this over the years, as I just discovered it now. I learned a lot in regards to metro dosing by Dr. Naga. It's hard to find a successful regimen for treating with this drug in the water column. I've had such little success I only resort to feeding it or forcing into the stomach, It's great to finally have a reliable protocol to use in baths and submersions.

Thank you @RD

 

[RD.]

Thanks, and you're welcome. I posted the following 2 vids in a past thread on HITH and I should have added them here. This vet offers some additional insight into how to treat the infected lesions when bacteria sets in.

 

[Dieselhybrid]

What a find. Subscribed. Great information.

Once again, thank you.