ever since i bought my tiger, it has had a skin condition on it's right hand side. it has come and gone in terms of severity, but never fully disappeared. now it seems it might be some sort of fungus because his tail-fin is disappearing. any ideas? here is a picture timeline of his condition:











any ideas?

hi Thor84, your o had grown up beautifully. as to that scrape
on the side, please check a place where it usually stays at night.
you will find something hard or protruding on that level. oscar
usually rest on that place, on that same orientation, and there
must be something that could cause that scrape on same side....

i had same condition which i thought was just because of constant
bullying.... when i put that o in another tank, the other one got
the same scrape marks, thus i realized there must be something that
causes it. BINGO! it was the edge of the suction grill of the pump.
they love to hang on that area maybe because of the heat from the
motor. and the slow movement while resting causing the scrape due
to continuously rubbing against that surface.

as to the losing tail, i am not sure but looks like normal to me.
what i can see is just a transparent part which is normal for growing
tail fan.

i dunno, it'll probably go away, just concerns me, i'm used to the chewed up side, but the tail worried me.

hey thor, the clear picture show your o have some
heater burn. do your heater have cover?

The marks on the side are either something constantly causing the injury (like pauls examples) or its permanent scarring from the earlier injuries (unlikely). From the pics is does seem to be getting worse. Adding an anti-bacterial will help your fish heal but you have to find out whats causing the injuries. Does your oscar have any tankmates? and if so is there any bullying

delboybully wrote:

yes there is a female green terror, a red O, and blue ahli. the ahli is the most agressive, and chases a lot, but doesn't get physical unless the fish being chased doesn't run. they were all in a 60, which was very close quarters. i just moved them to a 120 gallon last night.
i was gone this last weekend, and i first saw the tail damage after i got home.
will an anti bacterial be bad for my bio filter?

PAUL wrote:

never heard of heater burn.
no, the heater in the 60 didn't have a cover.
in the 120 i don't have a heater at the moment... don't need one really, water out of the sink faucet is 80 degrees on a cold setting. the tank never drops below 76 degrees farenheit

Thor84 wrote:

there is some cases of heater burn. actually, it is not real burn but
the constant touching of body to the heater sometimes causes the loss
of the slimy coating and falling of scales. is that faded surface in the
tail shows both sides? if not, then that is possible.


is that oscar in the 120 gal tank? if it is, not a heater burn then

yes he is in the 120, but i just moved everyone into the 120gallon last night.
as far as the tail goes, it looks the same on both sides, and at the edge of the tail, the rays (or whatever they are called) are showing.
he might have permanent scarring, as he lost all of the skin on that side a couple months ago.. probably from scraping against a rock:

the last picture shows a rotting fin infection. i suggest you put
him in a hospital tank. if none, use a big bucket or a wash basin,
fill with tank water, apply methylene blue or equivalent, then put
the oscar in for 3 to 4 hours before releasing back to the new tank.
some people add pure salt in that hospital tank to comfort the fish
(1 tbs /10 gal water).

as long as he is eating well, he will recover soon

PAUL wrote:


well that last picture was from a couple of months ago, when he was first injured. sorry, i didn't specify... he has definitely improved since that photo was taken

well taken...no problem.... but in case you encounter the same
situation, that suggestion works perfectly. infected fish could heal
fast in that process without staying too long in a hospital tank.