PlanetCatfish.com

8 year old lace syno is dark grey/brown - lives in a cave shared with a spotted Raphael in a 55 gal tank. Suddenly has white patches above both eyes, nostrils, and bright white dots along mouthline. Fish is behaving as usual - eating, etc. Other fish in long established tank appear fine, no illnesses or deaths in last year. Can't get a picture without removing cave and don't want to stress the syno or the Raphael more than necessary. Any ideas or suggestions on treatment? Thanks.

To start with go through this thread and follow some of the links http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hp?t=20518

Birger - Thank you. Those posts made me feel a little better about prognosis. This fish is a sweetie and one of our first catfish. It is in a 55 gal "catfish" tank (lots of caves, logs, etc.) which looks empty in the day time unless you look closely at the bottom. I was confused because the websites said hole in head was primarily a cichlid problem but it sounded like what I was seeing. I feel better now - thanks again.

Assuming it's hole in the head disease and not, say, columnaris... Try getting vitamin C (ascorbic acid) enriched food, or enrich it yourself, and feed with that. It is anecdotal, but both I and another researcher have come to the conclusion there's a link between vitamin C deficiency and hole-in-the-head/lateral line erosion in cichlids.