Holes on my fishs head

Question
Dear Chris,
I bought this used 60 gallon aquarium from a private seller on a popular internet website.  The aquarium came with a 12-inch wolf fish.  The seller told me to feed him goldfish, and that is what I've been doing.  Last week I realized that he wasn't eaten any goldfish and that these holes had formed on my fish's head.  Originally, the fish had one hole on his head that was a whitish color around the hole.  Now there are eight holes on the top front portion of his head.  Is this some kind of crazy fish disease that I am unfamiliar with?  Could the goldfish that were in the take given my fish a virus or something that created these holes?  I took the remaining 3 goldfish out of the tank.  The wolf fish appears to be listless and less active than he was when we got him...not like he was too active to begin with.  What should I do?  

Answer
Hi Dawnee;

Poor guy. He has a condition known as "Hole in the Head". It is actually caused by waste toxins and/or malnutrition. I suspect he wasn't kept in a very clean tank at his former home. If the tank hasn't been set up in your house for very long it may be going through a break-in period and has more toxins than he can handle. Or, if you have had him for more than a week, he needed water changes and gravel vacuumings by now. Make a 25% water change every day for the next week and do not try to feed him for the first 4 days. He is not going to starve, so don't worry. Fish do just fine with no food for up to 3 weeks. He needs to rest and feel better before food should be introduced.

Many people try to use medicines to cure it, but if the underlying cause is dirty water and malnutrition, the fish never really gets better. There are conflicting causes of the holes too. Some say it is a bacterial infection, some say fungus or even parasites. I personally believe it could be any of those as a secondary infection to the eroded 'sensory pits' on the head. The fish has a hard time recovering if there has been inadequate diet and water conditions that eat away at this area.

Another issue to be addressed is his diet. Feeder fish are not very nutritious when you first buy them and are known to carry disease because of the stress of being moved from the farm, to the wholesaler, to the retail shop and then to your home. They have been in very overcrowded conditions so the whole time they were transported were subjected to seriously high toxin levels. The time between being collected at the ponds and to you could be a couple of weeks. Their bodies are so stressed by that time they have very little nutrition to offer your fish. You might consider setting up another tank to house them and rehabilitate them while feeding nutritious foods and maybe even vitamins for a couple of weeks so Wolfie can have better nutrition.

Here is more about Hole-in-the-Head, also called HITH. It is featuring oscars, but the causes and treatments are the same;

http://www.flippersandfins.net/HITHarticle2.htm

Here are good articles on two different types of Wolf Fish too. Since I don't know which one it is, I thought you could check these out for more info on him;

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/encyclopedia-347.html
http://www.aquariacentral.com/fishinfo/fresh/wolf.htm

I hope he feels better soon......

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins