Hole-in-the-head disease in discus fish, Symphysodon (Heckel, 1840): Is it a consequence of a dietary Ca/P imbalance?

ABSTRACT: Hole-in-the-head (HITH) disease-affected fish develop characteristic lesions in the skin above sensory pores of the head and the trunk. This study investigated whether an unfavourable Ca/P ratio in the diet could provoke lesions consistent with HITH disease in discus fish Symphysodon (Heckel, 1840) as a comparable condition to secondary hyperparathyroidism of tetrapod species. Two groups of five fish were fed a plain beef heart diet (Ca/P of 0.03), whereas two other groups were kept on commercial discus feed (Ca/P of 2.73). Each feeding group was submitted to two different water hardness regimes (35.66-71.39 mg/L CaCO₃ and 124.94-196.33 mg/L CaCO₃ , respectively). All fish were observed for the development of the characteristic lesions for 16 weeks. At the end of the

SUBMITTER: Amesberger-Freitag A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6852440 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature