I woke up this morning to the most horrific sight - my poor Oscar was all scratched up - scales missing, chunks missing - it was aweful. I'm to guess he/she got caught in some bog wood and got stuck/scratched up.





I know there isn't much to do, except keep the water pristine?? Good news is they were moved to a much larger tank today! so hopefully there will be more room.

Hey Penn, if you read this - I remember a post you had where you had a fish with a huge chunk missing in it's head - and the before/after photos? For the life of me, I can't find that post. i'd love to look at those photos again

Hi meghan, those wounds will clear up very quickly. i wouldn't worry to much. i hate seeing any marks on my fish too so know how you feel. I think it was Paul that had the photo of the injured oscar. very nice pair ))))

The boss added his pics in the main health page, under cuts and abbrassions.
www.oscarfishlover.com/oscar-fish-health

There's some in Pauls Photobucket as well.
Mine got cut pretty bad due to aggression against him, but within a month the wounds have almost closed and only leave a small scar.
The wounds on your o seem superficial and prob won't even leave a scar.

dont worry dude scar's are kool mine have heaps.lol
do you get stress-coat there??? by API. or similar?
i put a few cap fulls of this in my tanks when my fish hurt themselfs and will heal over (turn back greenish) within 24hrs no prob.
its when they are deep deep cuts that you gota be more worried hey.
good luck

I agree stress coat works very well my O has had a few scratches from the bogwood more due to the other O chasing him but tends to heal quite quickly.

lovely pair of oscars, agree with paul those wounds will heal up fairly quickly!

skatkea wrote:


thanks for the advice on stress coat - I will run out and get some today; it's something I should have on hand.....

Noddy wrote:


those are the photos I was looking for - thanks!

update - Oscar is healing very well (thanks to the advice on the stress coat - i think that helped).

I'm thinking tomorrow the wounds will be hard to see - I'll try and get photos. Amazing how fast they heal.

another addition to it's 'battle scars'.. heheh!
although we do hav stress coats here, i normally use traditional herbal remedies for fish stress and wounds. things like dried wild almond leaves, dried banana leaves and dried teakwood leaves works fast on bettas.. not sure how good it is for Os but my baby tiger seems to be quite active and eating right after i took it home and put it into it's tank with the solution mixed.

Its the aloe-vera in it that helps with the heal up i think, so no reason why you cant jus use a little of that insead im sure.

here are photos - 3 days later and there are virtually no signs of the original injury - amazing how fast they heal!