hex problems

[zar]

how do i print numbers in hex format it java?

ok, thats not really my problem :)
from what i read about hex i understand that

discus will have a tolerable amount in their guts, if they're stressed or water params are bad or similar they can suffer from an outbreak and the sign for that is white faeces and later on probably hole in the head.

now, if you see one single fish having white faeces in your tank, AND still eating, should you start feeding metro in food to all the fish or should the fish be taken out into a hospital tank? if they all have it anyway, do other fish get affected in any way by an outbreak of one fish in the tank?

the second problem that i can think of, the white faeces that is probably infested with hex and gets sucked in by your filter, will it survive there? it looks like a never ending story, if you get it out of their gut, it stays in your water which eventually will find its way back into their guts...
also, is it true that high temperatures kill hex? i heard above 30 usually should kill it, is this true?
or maybe throwing in metro tablets into the water at the same time as feeding them so that the ones in water and the ones in the guts get killed, is that how it should be done?
i'd be greateful if someone can shed some more light on this matter, i know there is tons of posts about hex here but i still had to ask these questions.
thanks

[madasa]

If you think you have hex then I would treat the whole tank with metro at 250mg to 40 litres at this stage as I am presuming that other than some white faeces there are no other symptoms.

Metro needs to be continued for 7 days minimum which includes water changes. Can it live in your filter media? Not if there is medicated water.

Pete

[zar]

i'm suspecting one discus of still having it, i've been feeding them food with metro which i find a lot more effective than just dropping it into the water, no other fish has shown any sings of having hex. but they probably have it if hex spreads through faeces into the water. i havent seen any white poo for a while now so maybe it's out of his system.

is it right to assume though that most discus have hex in their guts but it's an amount that they can tolerate and they dont mind or are not harmed by?
the problem with feeding fish always is that other fish, tetras especially won't come close to the medicated food, so i'm assuming the hex in their guts if they carry it, will stay there..

[fishgeek]

all very good questions of which i think the real answer is we dont know exactly

what i believe is known is
most of this group of protozoa(hexamita and spironucleus) have direct life cycle's, though hexamita sp can also transmit with free swimming trophozoites and also produce resistant cysts

hexamita seems to be more associated with disease in cichlids predominantly angelfish,oscars and dicus being 3 of the most common, other fish do not seem to show signs when infested with hexamita
ofr this reason they are sometimes thought to be commensals rather than pathogens

i have text books that suggest a single bath of metronidazol as being effective treatment and other that suggest solubility of the same drug is poor and in feed medication is much better

in general water quality and stocking density are difentiley contributors to disease prevalence

the white string faeces seen is because of mucous production in the gastrointestinal tract, this can occur due to any gastrointestinal irritation whether it be parasitic,neoplastic, or just that hot chilli you had last night

a fair guess in discus is protoza as they have a tendency to succumb to those whilst other fish seem not so prone

maybe that is of some use
andrew

oh and some of these protozoa are thought to be systemic, ie all through the body not just gastrointestinal

[zar]

thanks fishgeek

so from what i understand, when you see the white feces coming out it does not 100% its hex but could be something else. :-s is metro still effective against other protozoa variants or should something else be used?
Would protozin be the med to use then? Do people use it wiht Discus?

[ILLUSN]

I use protozin with discus and find it very effective, i use a slightly stronger dose then on the bottle (maybe 8-12% stronger) i dont use it often, mainly if i see fungus in the morning after a heater cr@ps itself during a cold winter night.