persistant hex

[limige]

hi, a few of my culls i guess you could say have had hex problems. they are stunted and about 4 1/2 inches long and aroun1 1/2-2 years old.

i've treated them twice now for hex, earlier this summer but it seems to return a few months later. i've been using metro in the water with high heat.

is there another med i should try or it is just that these are weak fish?

[Carol_Roberts]

Hi Limige:
You've been around for a while. So you've read the various treatments for hex and know the symptoms. Some fish don't ever fully recover. I would try one more time and then cull the fish that don't respond. Follow Cary's super duper treatment. I think it's something like this:

Temp 94 + extra air, 400 mg metro per 10 gallons every 8 hours. 50% daily water change. Continue for at least 3 days. Keep temp up for a week after and then slowly lower. If they are eating feed little bit of favorite foods. It may take a week before they really begin to eat .

Keep only the strongest, healthiest fish. Don't use up valuable tank space with fish who are always sickly.
Carol :heart1:

Carol, don't you need to do a waterchange with each dose? Otherwise you'd have 1,200 mg in there after just 24 hours, 1,800 after 48 hours, 2,100 after 72 hours, and 2250 after 96 hours per 10 gallons....seems like that'd be a little high.

[Carol_Roberts]

I believe Metro loses it's effectivness in water after 8 hours. However, I did go back into my little black book and it does say 25% WC before each dose and that makes sense to me. I think it would be easier on the discus at that high temp - rather than a single 50% WC (it's hard to get your change water at exacatly 94 degrees too)
Carol :heart1:

[limige]

thanks,

i've been thinking about treating them one more time and taking them to the lfs, maybe my blue diamond too, hate to get rid of him but my other fish don't seem to like him much. they tend to keep him in a corner most of the time cuz they don't want him to get the females, heck one of the females chases him off too! so maybe if i take 3-4 of my blue's in there i can walk out with another tank.

again, thanks, i'll try once more.

[Ardan]

Hi,
What do you feed? sometimes live foods or nonsterilized frozen foods can carry disease.
Also, sometimes symptoms of what appears to be hex (white feces) can actually be an internal worm (nematode). Flubendazole might work well, or panacur in the food.

hth
Ardan