My Oscar, Maurice is about 10 months old. He likes to throw little tantrums and drives his head into the rocks and sometimes swims up and hits his heat on the cover of the tank. You can see little spots where he hit himself but now he seems to have alot of them and he has them on his chin. They are not just spots they are indents. I am so afrain that he is getting some sort of disease like "hole in the head" Please tell me what you think. I would hate to lose him. Thank you for your time.

Ok 1st can you test water and post results.test for ammonia,nitrites,nitrates, and PH please. Hole in the head is more likely if you have high nitrates?? 2nd how big is your tank and what size is the fish?? 3rd Can you try to post a picture of wounds or marks using photo bucket. There are other posts on this site about how to use photo bucket if you are unsure. Its very hard for anyone to give the best advice with so little info and we would not wont to give you wrong info. Oscars can and do damage them self but lets rule out HITH.

my oscar gets these to, he gets huge ones going all the way down his body..

if they are deep they stay for a while if they are not deep they go within 48 hours

Hello...

I have a similar issue, only within these indents are pits, or pinholes... its scary, but at the same time, I saw on either this site or another that these can sometimes be some sort of sensory gland, and not hole-in-the-head.

unfortunately, its really hard to get a clean photo of the pits with a digital camera, and I will try again in the day light - but here are a pair of photos with the indents circled in one of the photos.

cguweb.com/fishcam/oscar_pitsA.jpg
cguweb.com/fishcam/oscar_pitsB.jpg
cguweb.com/fishcam/oscars.jpg


One thing I observed - there seems to be a pattern to the indents, as they are almost symetrical on each side of the fish, and both of my oscars show almost the same pattern of indents.

They are about 16 months old, about 10 inches, and live in a 75gal tank. Nitrates are fine, as is ph - one thing is the GH is a low, Im gradually raising / stabilizing that - I hate to dump salts, etc in all at once quickly.

Thanks to anyone who can offer advice or diagnosis help!

Chris

Ok as you say cadd getting a clear photo is hard but from what i can see I think its just the sensory pits in your case. Sometimes the pits do open a little and this is ok. Most of the time you can treat HITH with regular water changes as water condition can that bring on the problem. There are treatments but if you do think its HITH try extra water changes 1st. Nice pair of O's by the way ))

You were absolutely right. My nitrate level is 160. His head is getting worse by the day. The indents have little pinholes in them. I would love to send pictures if I was smart enough to get them form photobucket to here. Can you please tell me verbatum how to fix this problem I hate to even look at him I feel so bad. His tank is 40 gallons and he has a placo as a tank mate. Maurice (the Oscar) is about 7 inches long. He is eating and acting fine just not looking that good. Please tell me if it is fixable or if it is too late. Thank you all so much for your time.

on photo bucket just look under the picture you want to post and there will be something that says direct link...click it and it will automaticly copy it then just paste it onto your post

thats how i do it anyways..

hope maurice gets better soon

Thank you very much Ricky1987. By the way that is my favorite quote!

Octozin, If you are in the Uk will treat HITH. There is an artical to the left under helpful Articales about HITH this is as good as any advice I can give, Make sure your fish is not stressed, ie, fighting, poor water conditions, and plenty of room to swim, he should recover with just changing the water often. if not treat the tank with a treatment for HITH. fish do recover well from this as long as you do something to change the problem.The main thing is test your water as this will be the only way you will know if the water conditions are poor. let us know how things go. Good luck

Ok! I keep reading that I should do away with my carbon filter when I treat the water or all together. Could you please explain to me what I do to filter the water. Do I use the filter bag without to carbon or is there another trick? Thank you all for you information and your patients.

basically there are three different stages of filtration. mechanical biological and chemical.
mechanical fitration is usually the foam that traps floating debris from the water(uneaten food waste ect.) and is generally the first stage of fitration.
biological filtration is where the beneficial bacteria live in the system. usually this is in a ceramic ring or similar thing that house the bacteria which are what converts the ammonia into nitrites and the nitrites into nitrates.
the chemical component of your filter is the carbon which removes things like meds from your system. this stage is not required unless you need to remove meds from your tank and most people simply dont add it unless neccesary.
depending on what type of filtration you have you can add or remove the different types of media in your filter.

hope this helps

i dont use carbon at all..I have run my setup without carbon for 4yrs or 5yrs and now I would only put carbon in my filter if I have used medication.(havnt needed it in 4 or 5 yrs ) this would be to remove any medication after it has run course. oscars get on well without any need for carbon and its argued that carbon could be a reason that oscars get HITH. save your money any dont use it.(keep it for another day) I use a mix of fluval biomax tubes and foam in my filter and thats it. I wash half the foam about every 6weeks but I have a very large filter and it will depend on your setup as to how often you will need to wash it out.make sure you only clean half of whats in your filter as some of the dirty looking stuff is needed for your filter to work. what sort of filter are you running and what are you using inside?? you should have about twice the amount of filter power(more if poss) to amount of water. i.e my tank is 150 gallon my pump is rated at 400gallon. Overkill is far better and less work on your behalf. happy to help and its no problem. Lots of good info on the site but if your not sure someone will help.