I have no idea what this is!

My male bully has had a whitishness to his head for a couple of weeks now, like a thick mucous coating or something. It is not fluffy or raised, and it hasn't changed in that time.

I took some photos yesterday and noticed that the areas where his sensory pores are covered in tiny little.... balloons.

I have edited the contrast in this photo to show it a little better, but it is particularly obvious along the top-front of the head and in several lines under the eyes:

I also noticed some of the pores on the lateral line of my giant kokopu seemed swollen some time ago and may still be swollen.

Any ideas? I am completely at a loss.

just a thought but maybe start of lateral line disease

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_and_l ... ne_erosion

Doesn't HLLE/HITH normally result in craters (concave) rather than bubbles (convex)? That is certainly the way it was with my discus that suffered from this.

Having said that, is that a hole to the upper back of the eye? Hard to tell from the photo.....

HITH is inflamation and then erosion of sensory pores on the head and body of a fish

as i wrote it maybe the start of a process of degradation of those areas

You could try a increase in water hardness, will send you some trace elements if you want to give it a shot.

Stella, If you want to read up on hole in the head (HITH) and head and lateral line erosion (HLLE) then I can recomend this link. http://www.worldcichlids.com/diseases/Adamhith.html

Interesting.

Have had a little read about it and it sounds rather unknown in cause and treatment, though it does sound like it responds better when caught early. Then again this fish has been a bit funny around the head for a good few weeks without change.

What would people recommend I do?

I can't comment on water parameters as I don't have a test kit. I aim to change 1/3 of the water weekly, though at the moment it is 1-2 weeks between changes. I was a little bit worse over the first few months of the year, but the tank is rather lightly stocked.

HaNs, I understand how hardness is needed for discus, and soft water constitutes a possible stressor for them. However these species are found in hugely varying hardnesses and acidities, so that is probably not a problem. Not sure what the hardness is, but it is tap water so probably not soft.

Fishplants, I think the hole you are seeing is one of the larger sensory pores. The holes at the upper back and upper front of the eye are sensory pores, the two lower in front of the eye are the nostrils (presumably specialised sensory pores).

Thanks kiwiplymouth for the link, will get reading

I have had trouble with the kokopu in the same tank not eating. She basically went off her food for six months. The main diet I give them is ox heart. Recently I gave her some stream invertebrates and since then her appetite came back (including for ox heart). While correlation is not causation, I wonder if there are some nutritional deficiencies from the ox heart that might cause these things?

I no longer feed ox heart to any of my fish.

I know that many people do use it with good results but I can only think of a few fish that digest mammal fats, proteins etc on a regular basis in the wild.

it could just be a general mineral deficiency in the tank water

2 x weekly water changes should show a change in the swelling

if not then may need to look at other causes

i haven't had problems feeding oxheart but i would suggest faeces produced after could be higher in phosphates etc and may be a possible cause of a drop in water quality

tanks fed oxheart get more water changes and heavier filtration than others

HaNs, I understand how hardness is needed for discus, and soft water constitutes a possible stressor for them. However these species are found in hugely varying hardnesses and acidities, so that is probably not a problem. Not sure what the hardness is, but it is tap water so probably not soft.

Same situation for many fish, but a few people here have increased hardness of water with success.

Worth a shot for a few weeks if you dont find other alternatives.

Fishplants, I think the hole you are seeing is one of the larger sensory pores. The holes at the upper back and upper front of the eye are sensory pores, the two lower in front of the eye are the nostrils (presumably specialised sensory pores).

Sorry Stella, didn't realise that Bullies had so many large sensory pores! Discus only have the nostrils that are as visible, but a larger number of 'pin-prick' sensory pores.

Excellent photo Stella, you can really see the cephalic canals of the lateral line. The swollen canals look inflamed to me.

I have seen similar symptoms in two cases where the fish had a bacterial or fungal infection of the lateral line system. It was very hard to diagnose and we had to anaesthetise the fish and swab the canals to get a sample for testing. Once we were sure of the causative organism, the treatment was successful in one case, but the other case died after a week of treatment. Unfortunately I don't really recall what we treated them with.

Is he otherwise normal in appetite and activity level? Are you able to determine if there is any discharge from the canals?

Thanks Jennifer.

As far as I can see the lateral line looks fine, it is just the head that has the 'bubbles' and whitish coating. There is no discharge that I can see. It all seems very clean.

I know a girl who works in vet pathology at massey uni. Would it be useful or possible for me to take swabs?

I have been wondering about salting the tank (prob 1tsp/L) in case it was a bacterial thing.

Fishplants, bullies have more pores if they are diadromous (go to sea as fry like the 'whitebait'). If they are landlocked they lose the pores over time. It is looking like this guy is probably a diadromous one due to the pores.

A swab could be a good idea to rule out pathogenic microorganisms but the risk of surface contaminants is high so it may not yield anything useful. If the fish was exhibiting signs of ill health (e.g. lack of activity or abnormal rheotaxis) I might consider following that up but if he is otherwise fine it may pay to just treat conservatively. Salt might be a good place to start.

Hi Stella,

just wondering how your Bully is?

Hi there,

I *think* he is looking a little better. It is so hard to tell when the pores are so damned tiny! (and when I really need to clean the glass.... tropical fishkeepers are so luck in winter!). Sometimes I think the slightly filmy appearance around the head is looking better, sometimes it looks the same.

I really need to do a waterchange and top up the salt.

Thanks for asking

How's he going Stella? I was just talking to an aquatics vet friend of mine and asked about it. He said it could be related to dropsy and might be worthwhile trying an antibiotic like oxytetracycline if it hasn't improved already.

I thought it would be good to give an update on this.

I salted the tank for a while but it seemed to have no effect. He kept looking the same for a very long time but slowly the head mucus left and his body colour paled. He seems to be perfectly fine now.

I took some photos last night and the fine pores still seem slightly bulbous, but possibly not as much as in the first photo. (of course the mucus and colouring accentuated it).

I also got some photos of the girl and the same small pores are bulbous like his, so maybe this is just how they look. Can't see this with the naked eye, and it is only possible on the camera because these are pretty big bullies.

Original:

Latest:

He is SO fat! I think he is 10cm body length (ie excluding tail)

Many of the coarse fish (Rudd, tench, etc.) develope swollen whitish wart like bumps where their sensory pores are during breeding time..

I'm sure this is not the case with NZ bullies otherwise I'm sure you would know about it.. just throwing it out there..

Hes a beautiful fish Stell and I think hes looking much better. Eyes look very bright and alert.