tweaks

so im up at a friends and his fish has hole in the head diseas heis a maybe a year old oscar and is about 5 inches long and is floating around looking around and wont eat and just feel horrible we are thinking of moving him to a 10 gal so we can change water everyday tiull he is cured and than re introduce him to the tank is there any store bought cures you can get? or any remedys you know of ? and how long does he have? will he die quickly? or is it a long process

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~Pearl Earth Eater~

Tommy Gun

Hey Tweaks!

First, please know that I am not trying to confirm or deny what exact illness/disease this fish really has...but only passing along what I know on Hole-in-the-head disease. Also, I admit that I have not encountered this problem myself, but I have read a fair amount about it and how others treated for it.

From what I understand, this problem is not really something that you can solve or treat for by plopping some 'fizzy tabs' into your tank and walking away. In fact, this illness is most often 'brought on' as a secondary effect to poor water quality and poor diet. After confirming that by googling up some information on the subject, you will most likely want to find a way to supplement this fish's diet with Vitamin C and a few other items. That resource I mentioned suggests feeding more veggie-based foods as well as to do multiple small water changes in succession...which probably means something like doing a 10% water change once a day or every other day. The reason that you really don't want to do one big water change is probably based upon reducing the risk of osmotic shock to an already stressed fish.

HOWEVER, that website also states that hole-in-the-head disease is often misdiagnosed because it is similar to another issue; Hexamita. The reason I bring this up is because it was clearly stated that a few fish are more apt to have this "hole in the head-like" versus others, and of course, Oscars are on that list. Keeping in mind that I often times try not to use meds or other chemicals in my tanks, I have to say that the good thing here is that you might be able to treat for both at the same time since one treatment would be antibiotics while the other is just improving water quality and diet...hence, you wouldn't be putting two types of meds in the tank at the same time. Along the same lines, it may be somewhat good to know that this could not be the only problem you are facing since wounds like this are more easily infected by bacteria and/or fungus. Again, I don't like to suggest that anyone should always rely on meds, but in this case, the antibiotic from the Hexamita treatment (if you even go that route) might also protect from an infection.

I hope this helps at least a little bit. I would find it hard to believe that no other member could help you out more than I can here so keep an eye on your questions here. Also, if you would like, maybe moving this question into the
Freshwater Fish Diseases area might get you some better replies from those members who know about this topic. If you do, just let me know.

tweaks

alrite thanks alot and yahh oscars are very well known of getting this disease sum even live with iut all theyre life i read but sum are nathologist and lay around like this one and so we put sum water salt in and sum aqua aid stuff it was suggested and cleaned tank today so we will see what happens

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~Pearl Earth Eater~

tweaks

soo sad to say tried all that and now he is finding a cave and laying down we figure he is finding a place to die which is very tragic and sad..... im very upset and and now am going to go home and always do a water change since i seen this i dont want my oscar having to go thru this thanks for your helpbut i believe he was too far gone to begin with this all happened because they went away for a weekend

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~Pearl Earth Eater~

Tommy Gun

I am sorry to hear about this development tweaks. I still think that you might be wise to address some of those issues such as improving your fishes' diets and maintaining a higher level of water quality. Of course, anyone could benifit from those tips though.

tweaks

ya he died today... in my hands.... man that sounds like exagurated but he did i sat by tank and held him upright all day cuz he didnt have enuf energy to stay up right sooo it was sad we are goin to bury him in a box because he was such a great fish he'd let us pet him and such and just like a part of the family its sad but now because of this im gunna go home and cdo a water change every other day and always make sure its clean kind of an eye opener but thanks for your help it was too far gone i think from the beginning he is gone to fish heaven though to the huge aquarium up above haha but yes i checked the PH AMMonia and nitrate levels today everything was good but i read a site said that hole in head disease is VERY common wirth oscars and such things as smoke can cause stress which brings it on or loud noises

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~Pearl Earth Eater~