Recently I've been having problems with 2 of my 7 Oscars. The first one is a red baby Oscar that I've just had a week or two, that all of a sudden developed a hole in his head. I know about the Hole in the Head disease that effects Oscars, but is this something that can be treated and healed or is it always fatal? I'd only had him about a week when I first noticed it, so I put him in a tank by himself, to keep him from passing it on to any of the other fish. I've heard of this disease, I just don't know what it's caused by, what to do to cure it or help it heal faster.
The other problem is with one of the other Red Oscars. I had the two older red Oscars in the same tank together for a couple of months now. I've had no problems of any kind with them until a couple of mornings ago, I got up to feed them and discovered a huge chunk missing from the smaller one's side up close to the top fins. Is an injury like this always fatal or is it something that can be treated with some type of medicine until it eventually heals? Most of my Oscars have been extremely healthy over the last five-six years that I put them in my home. So I don't know much about anything except cleaning out the aquariums and feeding the fish. I need to know what can be done to keep this fish alive for as long as possible. So if anyone has any suggestions as to what I can do to get these 2 fish healthy again, I would be ever so grateful.

okay firstly...

how big is your tank? tanks?

how big are your fish?

can you post pics???

for HITH i believe the treatment is a 20% water change daily and add aquarium salt with every water change.... the salt packet will say how much per gal...

as for the other O... i think you should go to your LFS and see what stress coat or healing meds you can get...

Oscars are very hardy fish and can take a fair beating...
just last night my tank split and mt 2 O's nosedived the ground... they seem to be doing ok... beforehand i was treating them for the early signs of HITH... despite this they are doing ok...

but we need to know how big your tanks and fish that are in them are

Bianca gave you a great start on the info we need.. We will also need to know your water peramitors in both tanks and what filtration you have. The best treatment for hole in the head is super CLEAN water... That could mean a 50 % water change a day... Please post all info and a pic of the wound if you can so we can help you...

rkayed wrote:


HITH is not contagious so it cant be passed on. Its mostly due to a number of factors some being poor water quality and stress. there are many possibles but it has not been fully understood why certain fish develop it. As said tip top water conditions and a stress free home should work. if you are overdtocked this is a key factor as you will have both poor water and stress.
X2 on whats the tank size,filter,water test results.

hey rkayed.... how are your O's going?