I recently adopted a 12 inch albino oscar who is beautiful. When I got him he had been eating only live bait. I knew nothing, so now he has hole in the head. I have read very conflicting cures and causes. Can anyone tell me if he has a chance and what I should do. I really love him and dont want to lose him or see him disfigured. Also I cannot seem to get him to eat fish food now. I was told Spectrum for finicky fish was the best for him, but I cant tell if he is eating it or not and if he is how much he is eating and how much his tank mate is eating. (sucker fish) Any advice would be appreciated, you can send it to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Thanks!

Hole in the head disease is curable. However, it's not an easy disease to clear up quickly, especially if your Oscar is suffering from a bad case of it. If possible, please post a photograph of your fish so we can see the severity of the disease.

Unfortunately, bad cases can lead to very bad scarring so that's something you have to bear in mind. The first thing you need to do is test your water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. This disease is often brought on by poor water conditions. If you have any chance of curing your fish, you have got to keep your water and extremely good condition. What size is your tank? Also what kind of filtration have you got? In fact, please explain in detail what your set up consists of

Is the fish breathing heavily at all? Does it look like it wants to do eat when you put food in?

Anyway, I don't want to bombard you with too much information, I will only fry your brain. If you give us some answers and we will try and help you as much as possible

I have a 45 gallon tank. I was told it was big enough for Dex and the huge sucker fish. The sucker fish seems to put out a lot of waste. I have a magnum canister filter with carbon in it . Should I look into a better filter? He has been breathing heavily for the past couple of days, but shows no interest in the food when I put it in. I suspect the sucker fish eats it all. I will try and post pix tonight so you can see the degree. It is not as bad as some pix that I have seen but it is not a mild case either. He recently bumped his head while thrasing in the tank and it has turned red around a couple of the lesions.

if you have been checking this site you'll probably know by now that 45 gal isnt quite big enough for an oscar.also you say you have a huge sucker fish in there with him.do you know what kind of fish it is?
you should invest in a good water test kit to keep track of the quality of your water. this will go a long way in helping identify any problems you may have now and in the future.
as for fitration it would depend on a lot of factors including amount of bioload, number of fish, tank maintenence ect..but you can never have to much filtration.

to begin with you should do a water test and post your results this will be a huge asset in figuring out what course of action you should take

good luck to you

The placatomus (I think that is correct) is going back to the pet store today. They told me my tank was big enough, and it isnt. I am starting his regiment today with a water change. I got the test kit. I am doing a 20 25 pecent water change every 48 hours. I got a heat to raise his water tempt to 80-82. He is getting vitamins in his water every other day and salt every other day also. I can probably tell with the sucker fish gone how much he is actually eating, or not eating. I will post pix this evening when my regimen is finished. I appreciate all the help. What should I be looking for in the water when I test it?

good quality water should have an ammonia reading of 0 a nitrite reading of 0 and a nitrate reading of 40 or less(preferably 20)

HITH is a real cow to get rid of. Lots of water changes to keep the nitrates down to the minimum. Its takes a long time to cure and it doesnt always work. Ammonia and nitrite should always be zero. Nitrate below 40 is ok with healthy fish but for fish with HITH is needs to be below 20, some say nearer 10, the lower the better

Try to vary the diet (check some other posts out for foods) and only feed what it will eat in 2 or 3 mins. Remove any uneaten food

The nitrites and nitrates are with in the right range, I am having a problem with amonia. I was doing water changes every day or two about 30 = 50 percent. However the amonia was not getting any better. I tested the tap water and it is very high in amonion around 4.0. How can I get the level in my tank down to 0. I purchased a product called Prime at the marine store. They tested my water and then tested again with the prime and the amonia was at 0. I put it in my tank and the level is between 1.0 and 2.0 still. What would you recomment my next step be? I am at a loss and Dexter is getting more and more lethargic as the days pass.

Please recheck the result for ammonia on your tap water. It should be zero. If it is not zero then you need to contact your water company and get them to find out why. If you cant get a source of water without ammonia then you will have to buy a RO machine which will purify the water. The RO machine i use for my discus removes all the hardness and the nitrates that are in my tap water

he amonia level is now 0 the nitrate is around 5 but the nitrite is still around .25, what can I do to get the nitrite to 0, we are keeping up with water changes and testing regular.

As long as you have enough filtration then the nitrite will drop to zero soon