I have a 5 year old oscar in a 55 gallon tank and she contracted Hole in the Head disease from some feeder fish about one month ago. I will never do that again. Since I realized what was going on with her, I have been treating her with Jungle's "Hole N' Head Guard". One treatment every other day and a 25-30% water change after the 3rd. All the levels of the water are were they need to be and I have added some extra plants for cover, to help her feel less stressed. Her outer appearance has been looking great, with the exception of the holes on top of her head. She has not eaten now for about 3 weeks, but everytime I treat the tank, she breaths deeply for quite some time. She doesn't appear to be losing weight, so I figured that she was getting nutrients from the medication. Now her top and bottom fins are starting to look torn on the back, near her tail fin. My questions are: Is there something more I should be doing? Do I need to get her eating and if so, how? I have tried pellets, frozen cubes, dried shrimp/brine mix and mealworms. I have had two suggestions, they are: 1. add another fish to the tank so that my oscar can see that fish eating and 2. get some garlic (at the pet store) to coat onto the food. I see her swimming around the tank slowly from time to time, but mainly, she lays on the bottom of the tank. I have also added salt to the tank. Is this helpful or not really needed for oscars?

Attached is a picture I took about 2 weeks ago. Her wounds are no longer as red/pink and I can see scales trying to form over the larger wounds/holes.

First of all, welcome to the site.

Hole in the head is not a contagious disease, fish don't catch it from other fish, it's something that develops due to poor water conditions and other factors.

So your fish hasn't eaten for three weeks, this doesn't sound good unfortunately. I wish I had a pound that every time someone has told me their fish isn't eating, I'd be quite wealthy now. I'm afraid there's no fast and easy diagnosis for fish that are not eating. There are various suggestions and reasons why a fish will stop eating. Unless you can get them out of the tank and do various tests on them, we have to guess in a lot of cases and use past experiences to try and help. Sounds like you have got on top of a hole in the head. How is the fish is breathing normally? Is it opening and closing its mouth all the time?

Don't keep putting salt in, this really isn't necessary and it doesn't seem to be helping.

I would suggest that you don't try and feed the fish for a couple of days. In a couple of days, introduced a couple of pellets and see what happens. If your shops sell live shrimp, obviously big enough for Oscars to eat, you could get a couple of these and see how the Oscar reacts. If it totally ignores them, and I think we have problems. Unless it has got something to do with the medication that you've been putting it on. I can't see how it would be, but we have to look at that possibility.

If the hole in the head looks like it's healing, or healed, don't medicate the tank for a while, just do regular water changes.

That's about the only advice I can give you. Getting a fish that has gone off its food back to eating can be extremely difficult, or impossible in some cases. I don't think anyone is going have a positive answer for you at the moment.

She appears to breath normally and only heavy when I am putting the medication in. I forgot to mention that her tail fin spasms from time to time. Is this part of the hole in the head or could it be something else? I will do a water change today without medicating and see how she responses. I will also look into getting her some shrimp. Thanks for all your help and I will keep you posted.

Without seeing your Oscar, I couldn't be absolutely positive but these spasms do sounds familiar, my Oscars do it occasionally. Tell shaking can sometimes be a sign of aggression

Sadly, I don't think that things are looking good. I did a water change yesterday, as suggested, and there were a couple times that I really believed that she was dead. There was two times that she went completely sideways and floated at the bottom of the tank. I gently touched her and she seemed to wake up a little, get upright again and then go back to the floating. She also continued to gasp for air with her tail spasming on and off.

This morning she was upright and moving around a little bit. When I turned on the light and went up to the tank, she came to the top, so I tried giving her some food. She looked at it and turned away. I've got a sinking feeling. Is there anything else that I can be doing to help her? My heart just aches seeing her struggling like this. Could there be something else besides the HITH going on and if so, do you have any ideas?

Jierna

I have been here before. Like I said before, without carrying out extensive tests which would mean removing the fish from the tank and taking samples, it is virtually impossible to diagnose what is wrong. Obviously the first thing to do is make sure that the water is in pristine condition. That means ammonia and nitrites at zero, and in your circumstances, the nitrate as low as possible, preferably 20 ppm or lower.

There could be any number of things going on with the fish. There could be an internal problem which is stopping the fish from eating. It could be something internal like a bacterial, parasitic infestation, very difficult to say what really. The gasping for air could be a sign of stress, or it could be related to what is wrong with the fish. Again, seen this a few times before.

I've been here so many times and suggested different things to do such as antibacterial and parasitic medications, unfortunately they haven't worked and the fish has died. I honestly think you should prepare yourself for the worst. Your fish hasn't eaten for three weeks, if it carries on for too much longer, I think you should seriously think about ending it all as it will probably be the most humane thing to do. However, I will tell you what I tell everybody, please contact a professional veterinarian and seek his advice. Although I been here before and seen it, I am reluctant to recommend euthanasia when I haven't seen the fish myself.