How do you treat lateral line disease in fish?
0.01% becaplermin has been successfully used to treat HLLE in marine tropical fish by applying the product to the debrided skin lesions. Fish can recover from HLLE but often have permanent scarring. The disease is rarely fatal.
What does lateral line disease look like?
As the name states, hole-in-the-head disease causes pitting and erosions along the head and/or along the lateral line. The spots may be slightly depressed and brown to grey to white in coloration. Mild cases may only have a few spots, whereas serious infections may start to erode large patches of the face and sides.
How is lateral line disease treated?
Hole in the head can be reversed by removing all activated carbon and conducting large percentage water changes. Greater than 90% water changes may need to be done to reduce the effects of activated carbon. More commonly, cures are made by moving the fish to a new aquarium that has never had fish develop HLLE in it.
How do you reverse HLLE?
Feed high nutritional food like you are doing. Selcon soaked nori and pellets. Keep water quality good is the best way to reverse HLLE. It may never fully heal, just keep doing what your doing.
What causes lateral line disease?
The disease syndrome, which causes dermal erosions of the head and or body regions along the lateral line, has been well described, but the underlying cause remains unclear and has been a focus of much debate. The true pathophysiology of the disease has not been determined, and the anecdotal information is profuse.
Does carbon cause lateral line disease?
Head and lateral line erosion syndrome (HLLES) is a common but very poorly understood disease of marine aquarium fish. One suspected etiology is the use of granulated activated carbon (GAC) to filter the water.
Is Hole in the Head contagious to other fish?
The disease occurs mainly in discus and cichlid species, but it can affect other species such as gouramis. The disease is caused by a microscopic parasite called hexamita (often referred to as Octomitus and Spironucleus). The disease is contagious and infectious.
Does Carbon cause lateral line disease?
Can a tang recover from HLLE?
Some have had success reversing the effects of HLLE by soaking food in “fish vitamins” (e.g. Selcon, Zoecon, Vita-chem) and also feeding nori. 4) Copper exposure – Sometimes fish treated with copper (especially tangs) will develop HLLE.
Is HITH contagious?
Because many fish likely carry low-level Hexamita infections, anyway, the disease isn’t normally considered to be contagious.
Does carbon remove trace elements?
Activated carbon can also remove the trace elements and minerals that are important to your fish, invertebrates, and corals. Heavy use of activated carbon in marine aquariums can cause Head & Lateral Line Erosion disease (most often seen on fish in the Surgeonfish Family).
What causes lateral line disease in fish?
As the name states, this disease affects the lateral line organ and skin covering the head and face of the fish. Although there is no one cause for this disease, good basic husbandry practices and a low stress environment can severely decrease your fishes’ chance of showing clinical signs.
What is the function of lateral line in fish?
The lateral line is a very important sensory organ. It can detect minute electrical currents in the aquarium water and also functions as a kind of echolocation system that helps fish to identify their surroundings. There is usually only a single lateral line on each side of the body, but many variants of the typical lateral line may occur.
Is head and lateral line erosion disease fatal?
Head and Lateral Line Erosion Disease (HLLE) HLLE disease in the short run is not fatal, but over the long run, if the disease continues to progress, the fish stops eating and becomes lethargic. The open wounds make the fish susceptible to other infections which in turn leads to the further deterioration of its health.
What happens if the lateral line is incomplete?
On some species, the lateral line may also be incomplete, in which case it stops short of the base of the caudal fin. It may also be interrupted, meaning that it ends and then recommences after a gap, perhaps several scale rows lower down on the body, as in some of the Labridae (Wrasse) species.