is she cureable? i don't want her to die.

canyou give a little more information on your set up? tank size filtration tankmates water readings (ammonia nitrites nitrates and ph). this could aid in trying to diagnose what may be wrong with your oscar.

well i would say from lookin at the pics that it has hith.

like necromancer4 says, we need you tank size and condition

Ok for those of you that may not have noticed there is a post just below this one from same guy.(sick oscar) There is a little more info but not a lot.... Glad you got the pics up syscoozzy. I think you have a major water condition problem to start with. This is the route to the problem and must be addressed. Nitrates over 40ppm is condidered high. 200ppm is off the scale in my test kit so should never be that high. You need a test kit mate,fast!$40 ish. test the water and post the results as necromancer asked. Without doing something to give the fish a better place to live there will be no hope. post Tank size and filter info too.without all the info we would be wasting your money on medication cos the problem will remain.I dont think its a fungus. and HITH is a possable,fungus treatment will not fix it if this is the case. when I first see the damage i didnt think it to be fungus as you said its not raised. Please look very close at the white area. is it like cotton wool/soft snow flakes that that land on your hand??? or is the slime over the fish body turned white with holes.??? Also this is very important did the last treatment you used clear it up??? Sorry to keep asking for more info but its your eyes and hands,and our brain trying to work together that makes things hard.If you dont pass on all the info the brain cant work.

thanks, i am going first thing in the morning and take a water sample too petco and have them test it. and to pick up a kit. the kit that i have is expired by one year. my tank is 90 gallons with 2 emperor 400s and 2 5 in stones. she did fairly well until after the move 18 months ago. i will admit i have slacked on care and upkeep for about 6 months since I had to move out pending a divorce and only back home to visit my daughter but all my time was spent with her. nowI am back and its out of control. I do know nitrates are through the roof @200. I am going to do a 30-50% water change if u think it'll be ok. I have another tank which is 10 gallons to treat her. I may do a complete water change and clean the tank inside and out and get rid of the two feeder fish she never ate. they are over a year old and could be stressing her out. thanks again for all the help. it is 6:15 pm now and it will be at least 24 hrs until i get back online.

oh by the way, i can take a little mini movie of her if i am able to post it. i am not sure if i can or not. thanks

that is a very very severe case of hole in the head disease, probably the worst I've ever seen, it looks like it has actually eaten away the whole head region of the fish. You are going to have a huge battle on your hands, and I doubt the fish will ever look normal again. It will be rather liked someone having a serious facial disfigurement. I don't want to sound like I'm chastising you, we don't do that on this website. But why have you left it so long before asking for help? hole in the head disease it is curable in many cases. It's much easier to put a stop to it when it first starts. However, when it gets to the state that your fish has got it, it can be very difficult to reverse. There is one thing I am certain of, you are going to need to medicate the tank with a hole in the head medication. If you tell us where you are, we might be able to tell you what is available.

Now, there is no way that a fish gets in that state for no reason. What size aquarium and filtration have you got? How often do you carry out tank maintenance? What do you feed your fish? these are very important questions that we need to know. We also need to know what your water conditions are.

The first thing you should start off with is making sure that the water is in very good condition, you will obviously need to get yourself some testing kits. You need ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Is your fish actually eating at the moment? How is the breathing?

Anyway, we will do what we can to help you. However, a hole in the head disease can be fatal. It opens the fish up to all sorts of problems including bacteria and fungal infections which are often not kill the fish. It is absolutely vital that the water is in pristine condition all the time. I think this is going to take a long time if indeed the fish can be helped.

Is she still yaking her foods. This is vital for her survival. If she is taking her food aggressively, then she will survive. I will share my primitive way of treating fresh water fish diseases after you had applied all scientific processes.

That is a severe case of hole in the head (HITH). Im afraid nitrates of 200 is very high and this is probably the cause. To keep nitrates down you have to do water changes. Oscars are large and messy fish and you need to do large and regular water changes. Get a test kit and test your water a week after doing a water change. If nitrates are above 40 then you need to do bigger or more frequent water changes

As for your fish i afraid i dont rate its long term changes. Just keep the nitrates as low as possible

ok, i had the water tested. nitrates are 180, water is acidic,alkalintty is low, water is hard, nitrites are safe. this is after a 30% water change. should I change water about every 2-3 weeks until water improves? and how do I treat her hith. I am getting rid of the 2 goldfish in the tank with her. thanks

Okay, you say your nitrates are 180 ppm? That is about 140 ppm above the highest recommended level. so in other words, your water condition is absolutely terrible. If it's been like this for a long time, I'm not surprised your fish has got hole in the head.

It's a good thing that you're getting rid of the goldfish, these are incredibly messy and certainly don't belong in small aquariums. They are sure to send your nitrates soaring. so once you have got rid of them, I think you'll find it's easier to keep your water quality under control. Regarding the water changes, you should be doing a water change once a week, at least 30%. If you do leave it more than a week, you're going to find your nitrate levels creeping up again. At the moment, I would actually be recommending two water changes a week. You really want to be keeping your nitrate no higher than 20 ppm at the moment, preferably lower if possible. Did they actually give you a reading for nitrites and ammonia?

if you can get your nitrates right down, I think you'll probably find the fish might start improving. However, I'm not going to make any promises, your fish is in a very bad way and hole in the head does kill fish. What you need to do, is go to a shop and ask them what kind of medication they sell for hole in the head disease.

Firstly, you have got to get those water conditions sorted out, there's no point in medicating a tank when the water condition is very poor, the medication will not work.