Oscar Hole!?

[E3ramirez]

I have a 90 usG tank. I have a oscar about 7'' and it has holes on the head. Hes teeth are also showing. Is like pieces of his mouth are falling off . The same is happening with my red belly pacu ( the mouth).

I change the water monthly but, it looks yellowish after a while.

why is this happening?

how can i fix it?

 

[ox5477]

water needs to be changed more than monthly. A 20 to 25% wc is needed weekly atleast with messy fish that you have. A note on the pacu as well... it will get way too big for the 90G. How big is the Pacu now?

The thing that your describing is called strangley enough... Hole in the Head. It is a disease that is common to oscars with poor water quality and from stress. So I would recommend picking up the wc's quickly and starting treating for the disease and you could see the oscar rebound... they are very hardy and come back even when you think there is no chance. For what to treat with... go to the fish emergencies section on TFF and post and I'm sure someone will know the exact medicine to treat with (I forget the name).

As for stress... if the pacu is bigger than the o, it could be stressing the hell out of it and since it will get too big to live in that tank for life, I would recommend trying to give the pacu to your lfs or finding a local zoo or aquarium that would take it as it will have a much better life if it can find someone with a huge tank for it to live...

Also, another possible cause of HITH is poor diet. Do you feed goldfish feeders to them right now? If yes, this is a poor diet for any fish as the feeders are hardly ever fed (therefore contain little to no beneficial nutrition for your fish) at the lfs and can spread many diseases. A well balanced diet of krill, cichlid pellets and veggies such as peas and cucumber can help your fish turn around and beat the HITH. A note with feeding too... if you try a new food and the o doesn't eat it right away... then just give it a few days and even up to a week. once a fish is set on what it is eating, it can be stubborn to change (especially o's, they are very stubborn and can "powt" when things change) but eventually it will get hungry enough and try the new food and realize how good it is


Hopefully thinkgs will turn around for your oscar and you can find a good home for your pacu

 

[shelaghfishface]

WOW once a month?? have you seen these fish poop??, you need to make this much more regular than once a month.
follow ox5477 advice and i really hope it goes well for both of you, im guessing you got bad advice with reagrds to maintenence when you got him, dont worry just get on with it now and im sure he will be fine for you, as ox says they are prone to it, a few weeks ago i didnt have an external filter on my oscar tank just 2 large internals, so i was doing daily 50% water changes, as i was terrified this all too comoon diesaes would ghet them but thankfully it didnt, if you need a hand with any thing please dont be afriad to ask, no one is blaming you for this, it happens, you just have to make it better now

good luck
shelagh xxxx

 

[wendywc]

Might want to go ahead and take your oscar to a vet that treats fish ASAP. I've seen a plec with hole-in-the-head. By the time I got there when someone told me, it was really advanced; horrible.

 

[Dan Robbins]

Oxtozin treats hole in the head.
iv used this with great results.
it comes in tableted form and is available from Interpet.
Dan

 

[england]

this link should help
http/www.tropicalfishdata.com/disease/ho...n_the_head.html

w/c w/c w/c w/c w/c w/c water change