HITH thoughts

[sl]

what is consensus of hith? i talk to some people who say, just live
with it, others suggest cures. what is peoples experience with HITH,
effective cures.

[Mark Stone]

sl > wrote in message >...
> what is consensus of hith? i talk to some people who say, just live
> with it, others suggest cures. what is peoples experience with HITH,
> effective cures.

HITH discussions, both in the newsgroups and in the scientific
community, boil down (usually) to one simple question: Is the Hexamita
protozoan, which is always found in the lesions, the cause of the
disease or does it invade after the lesions form? Because there's no
agreement on this single question, there has never been a truly
authoritative conclusion re: what is the cause and cure of the
disease. If you do a Google search on HITH, you'll find many, many
supposed causes; lack of vitamin C, too much Nitrate, incorrect
temperature, poor water conditions, activated carbon in the filter(!),
etc. etc. So, if you are looking for a consensus, the newsgroup would
have to look back at you and simply shrug! :-)

Experience is teaching us, however, that even though we're uncertain
about the cause of the disease, there's a pattern (with a couple of
exceptions) that if you treat the aquarium with an anti-protozoan
medication (one specifically targeted at the Hexamita) then the
disease is cured easily. Please see:

http://www.geocities.com/cichlidiot_2000/disease.html

And click on the HITH link.

Another note is that HITH rarely attacks in a very well maintained
aquarium. However, as the above link shows, there are exceptions to
this, too!

Are you (I mean your aquarium) having an outbreak?

--Mark

Mark Stone tractorlegs at msn dot kom
OSCAR Lovers! http://www.geocities.com/cichlidiot_2000/oscar.html
The ".Edu" meens i are smart.

[sl]

>Are you (I mean your aquarium) having an outbreak?
>
>--Mark

well he has 2 or 3 small holes. i have seen all this stuff before
about cause/cure. my big concern was i have a 105gal aquarium.
changing 10 gal every other day or so may be more economical, but is
it enough? the doing a quarter change may be required. but say 75
gal a week in water changes or even at the lower rate 30gal a week is
not real well received. water don't grow on trees. and for a while i
was doin a 20-25% change which seemed to have a beneficial effect.
but again, it just costs too much. its great and the goal to have a
perfect aquarium, but i t can be very costly. thanks tho