Apparently my oscar burned hirself on one of the heater tubes. Here's a pic



At least I think that's what happened, it doesn't look like a scrape. I've never had this happen before. S/he is acting fine, I am treating with Stresscoat and Mellafix.

You haven't got a large plec have you?

That has never happened to me. Exactly how hot does your heater yet, have you ever touched it? To be perfectly honest the fish would have to be in contact with a heater for quite a long time to cause such an injury, the heater would also have to be fairly hot.

yeah, it look like an injury to me but it would take a very hot
heater to make such an big gash.... because fish would react fast
when it feels the heat.

do you have any sharp edges inside the tank... or a plec as OFL
had asked?

keep the water under control to avoid complication.

No, no plec. Oscar's alone in the tank.

I didn't actually see the fish get burned but have noted after this event the heater does get hot and I've seen hir swim round behind it. The heaters are metal Via-Aquas one at each rear corner, they hang loose so it isn't like s/he could get trapped behind them. On doing research I've found this does happen sometimes but I'd never ran into it before. The wound doesn't look like any scrape I've ever seen.

could it have gotten stuck behind the heater? and managed to riggle free but not b4 the burn??

askhammatt wrote:


'cept the heater tubes were hanging loose. Now I have them hidden behind filter intakes where the oscar can't wedge behind at all.

beat me then, bloody oscars always find away to reck the tank and themselves! lol

lesson for the future tho i suppose, keep water params good and will heal fast

with care, he will certainly heal fast - I have been amazed how quickly they heal

you can consider an inline heater - if you're using canister filtration, it hooks on the output hose between the canister and the tank - thus, no heating element inside the tank. I'm very happy with mine - it also eliminates one more piece of equipment inside the tank

Just to update everyone my oscar is healing quickly (though boy was that a nasty looking thing) and I've moved my two heating elements where s/he can't get to them. I know it was a burn because it started out looking like the top layer of skin peeling then progressed to whitened dead scales before it began getting better. I've been reading up on fish burned by aquarium heaters, apparently it happens and unfortunately the fish don't seem to notice the damage they're doing to themselves while up against a heating element (so everyone take note where theirs are in their tanks).

Thanks to everyone for the reassurances of quick healing.

Heaters in the tank get very very hot, more than capable of burning a fish, the only thing that stops them burning out is that the water surrounding it takes the heat from the heater

I had a SD that hid behind a heater while i was doing a water change, and got burnt

The burn will heal quite quickly but it may leave a mark/scar

Here you can see the burn is healing quickly.

glad he is healing well!

I'm amazed at how fast they heal - with pristine water, it's only a few days! if only we healed that fast