A guy at LFS gave me this fish for free because it had no tail, I took him and put him in a 30 gallon and been treating him with melafix. I treated him for 7 days and it doesn't seem to be getting any better.. He is eating normally and swimming around like my other Oscars do.. Anyone faced this problem before? If so. how did you cure it?

It depends how badly the fin is damaged. If it caused a lot of damage to the roots then it may never grow back. you'll just have to wait and see

well. it has been 7 days and i did a 50% water change, should i start using more Melafix?

Not sure what his previous owner did to him, but hope he gets better

The cause of this is usually fin rot or being nipped by other fish. If you look at a fin on a fish there is a base where the fin pivots about. As long as this isnt damaged the fin will grow back. From your pic is looks like the base of the fin isnt damaged so it should grow back but it takes quite a long time. Keep the water quality good and your fish will be ok

Should i leave him in the hospital tank? or move him to my main tank? he is in a 30 gallon atm

delboybully wrote:

i totally agree with dbb here. and even if the tail base is damaged,
oscar could still survived and become healthy..... same case with the
parrot fish wherein tail is intentionally remove to make them look
like heart shape.

PAUL wrote:


You got to be kidding me!
But I know you don't...
People do stupid things, really stupid things.
Let hope the O grows his tail back quickly!

Yea ..

before you think about moving it into your main tank you need to consider the fish you already have in there and there attitude to other fish. there is a good chance it may be bullied with no tail. 7 days is far to early to see any improvement as the damage is very bad. well done for taking it on.

Way to go on your efforts FJ!! I will cross my fingers for you and your Oscar friend.

Thank you, I'm going to give him more time and see if he gets any better. I stopped using melafix and just doing water changes and raising temp. I was going to add aquarium salt but since he is missing some scale it might be bad for him so i decided to go with water change/high temp.

You can add him to your main tank but watch out for bullying. Sometimes fish will have a go at an injured fish