i have a 5-6" oscar hand fed loves women!!! when i bought him he had ick but i was anaware, then i found him to have hole in the head when i tryed to take him back the store said no! so now i have got rid of the ick but hi hole in the head is growing slowely around his eye socket, he still ets good and swims as normally very active, swims upright and i have always checked my wate regular and i dont feed him fish. i am pretty good at keeping oscars, he has grown at enormous rate and i dont know what else i can do for him , should i expect him to die or euthanize him? can i put another fish with him or will they catch his hole in the head? please help cause i think i might need to find him a new home it heart wrenching watching this every day. he is in a 45 gal tank cause he is still a baby as he grows i have enlarged the tank with same water+ may is gonna be anew tank upgrade. he has now had two tanks, he was only 1-2" when i got him. his levels are good they are as follows:nitrate o ppm, ammonia o ppm,ph 6.4,nitrite o ppm i check it twice a week under the conditions! he eats hikari cichlid large food. not sure how to put up photo but the spots on my avatar are his hole in the head.

Dude,, I'm going thru the same thing right now man. Scew it dude, stick with him man! My buddy is getting better as we speak! I would hold off on putting anything in with him for now tho man. Let him get better first. Dont panic, I thought my oscar had ick and I started to notice he had a small mark on his head, I treated him for ick and he's been getting better very quickly. Stick with him man!!

welcome to the site. a picture could help us evaluate the
condition of your fish. while waiting for the inputs of others,
a regular water change will comfort your fish. the way i read your
post is that when you got your oscar, you are not aware that he/she
has an ick and HITH. a dose of pure rock salt will help to soften your
water and enhance oxygenation (1 tablespoon/25 gal ratio)

now we need the following info:
tank size?
how long the tank had been set up?
filter type and capacity?
ammonia?
nitrite?
nitrate?
pH?
temperature?

wait for others to chime in.

I hope your Oscar will get better, I've heard that HITH is notorious in Oscars, and there are some things I don't know about the disease such as at what age does an Oscar get it as I thought that it's caused by prolonged bad water conditions.

Also an Oscar i purchased got ick like a few days after i had brought him home, and with him being Albino It was hard to see if he had it while he was at the pet store.

But as long as u spot it early Ick is treatable, not so sure how to go about HITH though And pet shops don't really care about the fish u buy, to them its all about $$$ and when your fish is sick/dies they know we will go looking for medications or for more fish

pristine water is the first and foremost defense in
all fishes sickness. ick is easy to treat while HITH
with deep craters leave mark even totally healed.

Before you decide if to put another fish with your oscar can you tell us what size tank you have. 1 oscar needs 60g or more. the fact you have HITH thats getting worst tells me you are not coping with the necessary maintenance for 1 fish so 2 will make it worst. posting your water readings will be a start for us to help you further. also give us your cleaning and maintenance program can help heaps.

Welcome to the site

As Paul says, a photo would be helpful, at least we know what we are dealing with. I'm not convinced that a lot of these medications on the market actually do anything, not with Oscars anyway. Again, I agree with Paul, good water conditions are the main key to keeping Oscars healthy. Unfortunately, oscars are susceptible to hole in the head disease if kept in poor water conditions. I know that a poor diet is also related to this disease, however, I would say that 99% of the time, it is poor water conditions that bring this disease on.

Hole in the head disease is treatable. Obviously the more severe it is, the harder it is to clear up. However, yours doesn't sound particularly bad, not from your description anyway.

At the moment, it is so important that your water is in good condition. You'll probably have to carry out more than one water change a week because I would recommend that you keep your nitrate is no higher than 20 ppm, preferably below that. I would also recommend getting a really good quality pellet, something like Hikari cichlid gold. These pellets contain lots of vitamins that will help your Oscar. If you're not too squeamish, you could also feed your Oscar on things like mealworms and crickets, these can be obtained from many pet shops.

We will await some more information from you

i have done very well clean up on the tank and water conditions, my fish came to me with these problems , im just trying to fix if i can or bear with it if i must, i love my fish rambo he is totally hand fed and rubs up against my hand when in tank he even does tricks for food !! there is no neglect on my part! i have found a really great fish store now that is trying to help me but advice from other fish people is always nice. oh yeah i forgot to ad the filter its a side tank filter for a 55 gal tank, all will change with the upgrade of the bigger tank. thanx for the interest i appreciate it.

i have found feeding my oscars anything other then fish food has given them disease so i try to stay away from extra things, not squimish though.and rambo (MY FISH) came to me with hole in the head not from my tank but the fish store. i have not tryed any meds as i have been told you can not get rid of it! he is the first oscar that has had this for me not sure what to do.i have had many before.

It's always worth trying to find a qualified veterinarian who has an interest in fish, problem is, they are far and few between. Most of them don't really want anything to do with fish. The other problem is it's not easy to take a fish to see the vet.

There are medications out there, in some countries, they are only available with a prescription. I wouldn't say they don't work, I'm sure they do help. However, most of us would agree that keeping the water in good condition all the time is the best way of curing/preventing this disease. Hole in the head disease is curable, so don't let people tell you it's not.

Stick with it, keep up the water changes, try not to let those nitrate levels rise above 20 ppm if possible.

what kind of meds can i purchase for hith? and how long do i give it to him?

Okay, you are in the United States and I am in the UK. Medications available in the United States will differ from what is available over here. However, I did get some advice from somebody in the United States which can be found on a sticky in the Oscar forum. To make things easier for you, I have put the link in this thread. None of these medications are available in the UK as far as I know, so I can't vouch for how well they work. They are probably readily available from fish stores in the United States so you can probably get them mail order.

www.oscarfishlover.com/index.php/The-Osc...e-United-States.html