Gerald Bassleer presents a discus case (video case nr. 205) showing ‘‘holes in the head’’—a symptom he attributes to underlying internal problems rather than an isolated external disease. He documents external lesions (head-region holes, excess slime on gills), microscopic scrapings that reveal large numbers of bacteria (no parasites found), and internal organ changes (liver and spleen with dark occlusions). He recommends microscopic examination, possible lab testing, addressing water/food quality, antibiotic treatment as guided by a fish doctor, and nutritional/supportive options described in his books.
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Hello, dear fish lover, dear Aquarist, dear discus keeper. Yes, another case of discus disease. A fish disease that I show here on a discus fish with holes in the head. Yes, something that happens in our discus. And I hope all my videos of my different observations help you to understand how complex this symptom is. This kind of disease, we should call it not a disease, but a symptom with a discus with holes in here due to poor internal. Poor internal organs. In my books I give you all the details you can get on prevention, diagnosis and a good control with different medications. Try to get them if you want to specialize yourself. And here we had in the aquaria, the discus with some tiny little holes in the head region. Not in the sideline, not in the lateral line, but here, look at the nose area, the header, that's where it starts with. And then it's the time you have to start checking what is causing it before it gets worse. Here we see some of the discus have hardly anything. And some of them, it's getting serious and more advanced. And some are getting dark, sitting at the back, not eating anymore and dying. So there is something going on. Not all the fish had holes. Some had that seriously, the holes started to develop and some were separating from the group and not happy, not feeling well. And that's the time you have to start checking. And I hope you have a microscope or you have someone to help you to try to find the cause of this disease. Here we see all the tiny holes in the head area of this discus. And we took a scraping from that head area with all the slime, the mucus, some of the scales, we took off. We try to watch for parasites because some people say, well, the parasites are causing the holes. No, we might find parasites when they were bagged a long time or shipped to you. Then the bags can have water which is polluted with the parasites, and they can go to the holes, but they're not causing the holes. The cause of the hole in the head is explained in different videos, particularly the video I have on hole in the head disease. Watch that video to understand it more in detail. But here, extra slime damaged. 12 weeks we saw the holes and now we also took the gills. Look at the slime that is covering the gill. So the fish is having a kind of. Is it allergic reaction or what? But that's not a good sign when there is so much slime covering the gills of the fish. So there's something troubling the fish, maybe discus pest. And then we checked internally and we found A lot of bacteria. You see the millions of tiny black spots twirling, moving around in the water, dancing in the water in this video. And here we took another part and you see all the black Murray, the black smurdy are million of bacteria, which is too much to be normal, to be accepted as normal and causing, how can I say, an internal bacterial infection. And then you can find it also in the organs. Here we see the liver with the black occlusions. And also in the spleen melanoma centers, which is a defense usually against the bacterial infection. Well, I presumably say it's a bacterial infection. We found the bacteria. But you can send the fish to a laboratory and they can check for a virus or for the bacteria. And then you get a more definite result within three to five days maybe. So they discuss here. I suggest the treatment. Well, first of all, try to do a good microscopic examination. I show you many of my cases and I might find so many different findings in fish. This discus fish with holes in the head, sometimes with parasites. And here in this case there were no parasites. They might have been cured by previous actions of the fish keeper. But the holes are still there. So the fish were still suffering from something that was not normal. But anyway, the holes are there. You have to check to repair the fish. And you have to first of all check the water and the food quality. The sooner you take action, the less severe the leases of the holes. And a treatment with antibiotics should be necessary. You can ask your fish doctor what to apply or you can get in my book some details help to restore the health of the fish with a functional fish food like Dr. Basler biased food grapefruit seed extract and moringa moringa that helps in fighting off the bacterial infection and in the repair. More details on fish diseases you can get in my books. And there is a links here to where you can buy the books on geraldpasler.com and you want to specialize yourself more in more knowledge on Phish disease go to my training at fish doctoring. So I hope this video and disease case of this could help you understand this hole in the head. You. You might have cured the holes in the head in your discus and still have the holes not disappear. Well, that might be scar tissue, but might be also due to other problems still not treated in the fish like here. Presumably a bacterial infection maybe coming in by bad food. I explained it in my videos on the cause of diseases by food. Many videos you can see in mine. So subscribe and learn more about all my videos on fish disease, particularly for the discus specialist. I have quite a few of diseases presented in my playlist of the discus. Thank you for watching.
