Treating Hexamita aka Spironucleus

[RD.]

Hi Heather,

Did you read the article in the link that I posted with regards to force feeding? Basically just make sure that it goes down the fishes esophagus and it will be forced to swallow. Make sure to feed a very nutrient dense feed that is known for high levels of vitamins/minerals. This is very important when a fish is under stress & fighting off infection/bacteria, etc.

To be honest I have no idea how easy/difficult it is to treat spironucleus once it has become systemic, and traveled into various organs and/or the blood stream such as the case when a fish has HITH. For a severe case of HITH I would also give the fish a bath in Metronidazole while force feeding. Instructions for bath duration & amounts can be found in the following link.
http://www.extension.org/sites/defa...gement_of_hexamita_in_ornamental_cichlids.pdf

If you see no improvement by next week, I would consider using Metro in the food for an additional week. The holes will take a long time to completely heal, and in severe cases there will be long term scarring present.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

 

[Armand]

To tell true I think every fish is in danger to suffer of Hexamita.

These last days of january one of my Flowerhorns started to show the symtoms, you knon, the white long string of poop hanging off and loss of apetite.

I think repeatedly decreases in the tank temp have been the reason why my fish immunological system got weak and then he got that sickness.

Well the fact is that I started to medicate following the exact indications provided by @RD and just one day of treatment has been enough for my fish's poop started to look brown again..-lol at this-.

Needless top say that I am keeping him medicated for 4 more days to complete the treatment...I thank you @RD for this great and useful info.




Cheers.

 

[heatherbeast]

The gold severum is doing a lot better, it's been over two weeks. He is much more alert, colorful, and fights a LOT now when I am trying to force feed him. I did the 2x metro treatment for two weeks, with daily partial water changes and daily baths in 1 TBSP/gallon of epsom salts. I have switched him over to normal dosing and water changes in his hospital tank for this week. Early on, I did a microscope slide of his stringy white feces and was able to see the parasite! It was a dinky little microscope though, so I had no way to take a picture to share. After this week, I will stop force feeding and just let him get used to eating pellets again normally -- he is TERRIFIED of humans now.

But, progress shots! Here you go. Day 0 versus Day 12.

 

[RD.]

Nice save. He's looking a LOT better.

 

[Armand]

@RD.

I have other FH that got sick of hex and he stopped eating so I had to force fed him.

The good think is that after 5 days of his pooing hex, at the first day of treatmen he stopped pooing the white string, the bad thing is that now he looks constipated.

At the second day of treatment his belly seems full, not much but still full such as if I had just forced fed him, and that was 24 ago and I havent seen him pooing anymore.

Today would be the third day of treatment, so if this nite when I get home and if I see his belly still full I dont think it is a good idea to submit him to more force feeding otherwise he will die of my getting his belly full of stuff.

What should I do!???.

 

[Armand]

Ok now fish is defecating and I am continuing with treatment, so far so good last night was the third day of treatment and fish is still not eating by himself but white string of poop has stopped showing.

Lets see if by next saturday fish starts eating by himself.

I Keep you posted for the records of this thread.


Cheers.

 

[Armand]

Fourth day and fish is still not eating so I keep force feeding treatment on, he looks more active tho.

He got infested pretty badly, but now I think he has good chances to pull through IMO.

I will force feed him just as long as it takes to get him out of this.


I' ll let you know how this whole thing turns out, I am optimistic.

 

[peacocklover]

so i have a question. if my flowerhorn has hex and wont eat, can i try to inject water that has epsom salt in it directly into its stomach? would this work?

 

[RD.]

See post # 19 in this thread.

 

[peacocklover]

thanks RD. so if i mix the grounded pellets with the epsom salt solution, will i still need to add metro to it?