White Spots on Altum head, not Ick, what could it be?

[cvc85]

Hi guys,

One of my altums has developed small white growths on it's head and I can't figure out what it is, hopefully you guys can help me diagnose it. The best way I can describe it is it visually looks exactly like white spot, except it is not because of a few reasons.

1) Located only on the head, none on the fins or anywhere else.
2) White dots have been there for 3 weeks and counting and has not dropped off(with my tank temp of 28C, that's wayy too long for it to be white spot)
3) Initially presented as 4 dots only on the right side of the head(pic 1), this past week 2 dots appeared on the left side of the head(pic 3) and 1 dot on top of the head(pic 1, not very visible).
4) Only present on 1 fish, no other fishes in my tank are affected.
5) Affected fish is behaving perfectly normal, eating energetically, not skittish at all.

Initially I thought it was white spot and raised temps + salt, but it did not spread and the dots did not drop off, so I stopped. I also thought it may have been a scrape perhaps, from the wood or maybe from fighting, but it has shown no signs of healing. After 2 weeks I was prepared to let it slide as just "some harmless growth" because my fish seemed perfectly healthy, until I saw the new spots appear this past week.

altum (1280x547).jpg

I'm gonna risk being longwinded by providing as much info as I can think of, to help give a clearer picture of my tank.

Tank Specs:

- ~900L tank, sump filtration.
- Semi Planted with co2 injection and dry fert dosing NPK.
- PH ~6.5, KH 2.0, Temp 28C
- Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate ~15(I dose some nitrates for my plants)
- Fishes: Altum Angels, Geophagus, leucosticta, Buenos Aires Tetra, Silver Dollars, Crenicichla, L144, L114, L52.
- Decor: Plants and alot of wood
- Water Change Routine: ~60%, twice a week.

Recent additions to the tank:
1) Buenos Aires Tetra
2) L114 pleco

White dots were already present on altum before these fish went it, so the cause wasn't them.

QT Procedure for all new fishes in general:

1) Seperate QT tank, high temp + salt(1tsp/2L)
2) visual inspection for a few days.
3) prophylactic dosing of antibiotics, dewormer and anti-parasitics. I dose all new fish regardless of health, some folks may not share this view but I don't trust simple visual inspection.
4) After completion of dosing routine, if nothing surfaces for 1 week after, 1-2hr drip acclimation to the main tank and fish go in.

Hopefully someone can help me figure out what this is, thanks in advance! =)

Cheers

[stormhawk]

Hexamita aka Hole in the Head disease.

http://www.fish-disease.net/diseases/hexamita.php

Link should help you, because this problem is nasty. It seems to affects cichlids easily.

[cvc85]

Hexamita aka Hole in the Head disease.

http://www.fish-disease.net/diseases/hexamita.php

Link should help you, because this problem is nasty. It seems to affects cichlids easily.

Wow I never considered that it could be hith, always thought hith was a result of bad water quality/stress etc, which shouldn't be the case in this tank. My leucosticta's developed hith when they were juveniles, probably from bad lfs conditions, fully recovered over time, so there's hope for my altum lol! Will start the tank on a course of metro, thanks alot for the info! =)

[stormhawk]

It's a common infection usually from the farms or LFS. Sometimes even in good water conditions it may develop. Since you have battled it before, it should not be too difficult for you this time round. Good luck and I wish the best for your altum.

[cvc85]

Hey just an update,

My altum has gotten worse after a course of metro. Behavior is still perfectly healthy, fish is eating vigorously, swimming out in the open, not skittish or anything. The white dots on the side of the head are still there and the dot on the top of the head has grown exponentially! It now looks like a huge pimple! As it seems to have some redness around it, I have started to dose the fish food with kanaplex just in case it is bacterial. I am on day 3 of kanaplex without any improvement. Any ideas?

Update.jpg

Cheers!