Blood Parrot Cichlids

Question
I know that nearly all cichlid enthusiasts consider the Blood Parrot hybrids to be freaks, so I won't be surprised or offended if you aren't interested in this question.  In case you are, here's my problem.  One of our 7 parrots developed what I identified as Lateral Line disease.  Unfortunately, I initially thought it was an injury that was causing the spot on his face.  Once I realized what it was (I think), I went to my local expert, and he gave me Sea Cure copper treatment, which I was to use as directed ("1 drop per every gallon to  produce an ionic copper level of 0.15 parts per million")on the bottle once immediately, then again a week later.  The day after the first dose, the original fish succumbed, after having been listless and hanging towards the top of the tank, away from the others.  Two days later, I lost a seemingly healthy fish which had had no symptoms that I could find.  Now I am at 2 days after the second dose.  I have another fish behaving uncharacteristically, and am becoming a bit desperate.  We have had most of these fish for years, but the afflicted ones are different ages and sizes.  They are in a 165 gallon tank, which has been set up for 4 months.  There are also two fairly large silver dollars, 2 severums (and some fry) 2 plecos, and 2 porthole catfish in the tank.  Repeated nitrite, ammonia, and ph test come up at perfect levels.  Can you offer any suggestions?  Sorry about the length of this post, but you did say to provide details.  Thanks for your time, whether you can help or not!

Answer
Hi Kelly;

Don't worry, I won't lecture you **grin**. Although the hybridized parrots are frowned upon generally, they still deserve to be cared for. Whatever is going on, the parrots are the least resilient fish in the tank so they will usually be the first to exhibit symptoms.

Lateral Line disease/Hole-in-the-Head is a rather mysterious disease really. There are many theories on what causes them and a variety of possible treatments.

Here is a great informational web page to help you figure it all out as well as treatment methods;

http://www.duboisi.com/diseases/hith.htm

I hope your fish get better soon.

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

Come on over and join us on the freshwater fish forum at About.com to get even more information too;
http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/questionsanswers/a/naavigateforum.htm

My member name is ChrisR62. See You There!