Hello. Need some help please. I have a rio 400 with 1 oscar, 1 texas and 3 silver dollars. I run 2 externals and the fish get along just fine. I have woke up this morning, checked all is ok as I always do and whooo, the oscar has lost halve of his skin on his head and it looks awful! He had his food ok but he looks off colour. Water reads are amm 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate is 20.

One thing I did notice a couple of days ago was a small slit in the top of head, very slight and this is where the wound has opened. He now has one further back. Could this be the problem?

Please, any advice what it is and what I need to do. Thanks.

Difficult to say really without seeing a photograph. How big are the fish?

If you could, please take a photograph so we can have a look. Just as a precaution, test the water for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and pH and carry out a water change, good quality water aids healing.

Hello. Photos a problem at the moment. Using parents in law pc and its not set up for pics etc. I have retested the water and the ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5 and the ph 7.5. The oscar is around year old and is around 7-8". The texas is around 5" and the dollars around 4". The oscar for sure rules the tank and never gets any bother.

I know its really tough trying to help with no pics, sorry!! The only out of the norm thing I have noticed lately is a small slit or knick on the top of his head. This is where it seems to have almost peeled off leaving a wound about the size of a penny. Still eating ok and cruising around the tank. There is a fairly large piece of bogwood in the tank, could he have rubbed it on that? It looks more like the skin has peeled off.

Is there anything I need to add to the water to stop it getting infected. If it gets worse I will some how try and get you a pick. Its a real worry but I am told these fish are pretty tough, I hope !

Thank you. Love the new look of the site by the way.

Okay, let's assume that the Oscar has just bashed himself against something in the tank. Injuries are quite common and some of them do look really nasty. However, if the water is kept in good condition, Oscars normally heal really well without the need to start chucking lots of medication in. But if you are really worried then you could start off by using melafix to medicate the tank. This is very good for cuts and abrasions and is normally available in most fish stores as this is quite popular.

But like I said, I normally like to let nature take its course and let the injury heal up by themselves.

You did mention something about a previous injury. Without a photograph of what's going on now, I can't tell you if it was just an injury, or something little more serious. Hole in the head disease normally starts off with little holes, not cuts so we could probably rule that out.

Keep those nitrate levels very low and keep an eye on the fish, if it's just an abrasion then you should start seeing an improvement within a couple of days. If it doesn't improve, all starts getting less than we will have to look at that little closer. But it would be really helpful if we could see some photos at some stage.

Thanks for your help. Will take your advice and let nature take its course. I will keep a close eye on it and hopefully things will improve, if they dont I will get a pic to you.

Thanks again.

follow the link below, three quarters of the way down the page you'll see two photographs of an Oscar with a nasty Abrasion on its head. The next photo was taken three days later. You'll see the Oscars do heal very quickly indeed
www.oscarfishlover.com/index.php/Oscar-h...car-Fish-health.html