My red tiger has had this hole in his lower jaw for about a month now. What is going on and what has caused it? The water parameters are all in line Amm 0PPM, Nitrites 0PPM, Nitrates 10-20PPM and PH 7. Water temp stays between 76-78 degrees. Does he have the dreaded HITH? Occassionally I will get a couple dozeen small feeders, but that is less than once a month. The diets consist mainly of Cichlid pellets, freeze dried shrimp, and Oscar Grow

Unfortunately I think this is hole in the head disease. They don't just get it on the top of their head, they can get around their mouths, around their gill covers and underneath their eyes, which basically is all there head region.

Sometimes this condition can be a bitch to clear up. Occasionally, you can just maintain it and stop it getting worse. This means never missing a weekly water change and making sure they always get good food. Also, check your water temperature. Hole in the head disease is not just caused by poor war to conditions and bad food, it can be brought on by stress which can be caused by sudden and large changes in water temperature. A lot of the time, people can't understand why there fish have developed the disease, they have checked the water conditions and everything seems fine, problem is, when they do water changes, the water temperature is changing a lot, there stressing the fish out.

Carry on doing your weekly water changes, keep the water in good condition and hopefully it should start clearing up slowly, or just not get any worse. If it doesn't clear up, you could treat the tank with a hole in the head medication

OFL, THANKS

I try to keep the temps close as I can possibly can when doing water changes, but I'll pay more close attention. Luckily for me "Big Boy" hasn't shown any other ill signs as to not being healthy and happy. He still has a good appetite and always goes nuts when someone walks up to the tank, he always thinks its feeding time.

OFL, THANKS

I try to keep the temps close as I can possibly can when doing water changes, but I'll pay more close attention. Luckily for me "Big Boy" hasn't shown any other ill signs as to not being healthy and happy. He still has a good appetite and always goes nuts when someone walks up to the tank, he always thinks its feeding time.

I've heard that sometimes HITH disease is caused by activated carbon in filters that for some reason has a strange affect on their oscars...but this may just be a rumor.

ive heard this theory about the carbon aswell but there is no defnit proof.

either way i dont use carbon as its not really neccasary

That looks like HITH to me. HITH is a bugger to get rid of. No one knows whats causes it and so no one knows how to cure it. The best that people have come up with is to keep the water as good as possible. Sometimes this works (it can take a long time) but unfortunately not always. Good luck and keep us posted

I'm sorry to hear about your fish having possible HITH. But I want to say that it is a really great looking fish. The picture is great. Any special way that you took it to make it come out so nice. Good luck with your fish.