Face Rot On Oscar

face rot? is this hole in the head?

if the fish do not have ich, treating them with medication for this parasite is a bad idea. oscars are quite prone to lateral line disease and neuromast disease, if their water and environmental conditions are poor.

what size tank are these oscars in?

how big are the oscars?

what are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels?

what's the pH, gh and kH of your water.

how often do you perform water changes and vacuum the gravel?

It looks like you are about to be flamed over tank size and lack of care but Hexamita (hole-in-the-head), a parasitic cause of head and neuromast rot, is not completely understood and you are probably not to blame. Most likely your oscars or at least one of your oscars was infected while in the crowded conditions of the breeder or fish supplier and the outward signs are just now showing. The parasites are thought to be taken in with food, multiply in the intestine, spread to internal organs and then cause the outward rot. Metronidazole is used to treat Hexamita but it is usually too late by the time rot is occurring and if treatment is successful the scarring is permanent.

If only one of your fish was infected, then yes you did cause your other two to become infected by keeping them in crowded conditions but the only way to have avoided that is to have kept only one oscar. Some will say you should have a 180+ gallon tank for three oscars and that would have kept your fish healthier. I have read the "how would you like living in a closet" argument on this forum multiple times, but in my opinion oscars and several other commonly kept South American cichlids are really just too big for any glass aquarium. A slightly larger "closet" would have helped you keep your water parameters healthier but the rot was inevitable.

It looks like you are about to be flamed over tank size and lack of care

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that's quite an assumptive leap of faith don't you think? asking what the tank environment and chemistry is simply a means to help determine a cause. answering the question of what the fish have and what to do about it in the absence of any information is impossible. kinda like calling up your doctor and saying "hey doc, i have this scaly looking skin all over my face .. what is it and what should i do about it". don't you think he'd need to know just a little bit more before he could be expected to help?

Most likely your oscars or at least one of your oscars was infected while in the crowded conditions of the breeder or fish supplier

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more assumption in the absence of any information.

slightly larger "closet" would have helped you keep your water parameters healthier but the rot was inevitable.

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this statement is patently rediculous. first, you know nothing about his tank size. second, "rot" is absolutely NOT inevitable. tens of thousands of hobbyists manage to keep oscars and other large south american cichlids alive and healthy ... without them ever contracting HITH, or any other disease for that matter. it's actually quite simple. CLEAN water, nutritious and varied diet, sufficient tank space, low/no stress environment. these issues are nothing more than should be provided for any species of fish one keeps.

Liv2padl,
And so I become the receiver of the flame. I was only answering his question instead of talking down to him, setting him up for the "oh your water quality and fish keeping skills are horrible," and throwing the fix-all clean water answer at him. Yes clean water will help but what he described is most likely Hexamita, his water parameters will only tell you how fast he can expect his oscars to die from a secondary bacterial infection. A picture is what we need to be fairly certain that it is Hexamita. Hexamita is a parasite, where do you suppose it came from if not from another tank. I did not mention that goldfish are also carriers of Hexamita, so feeders could have been a source but it does not matter because either way it is most likely that once Hexamita is ingested it will infect the fish and is inevitable. Again clean water may have helped prevent the outward rotting and slowed internal infection, I don't think that anybody knows for sure since Hexamita is still sort of a mystery and infected fish can die without showing rot, but his fish are already in the advanced stages and he needs medication recommendations. Why ask for water parameters if all you are going to do is recommend regular water changes and testing anyway. Just make the recommendation along with medication.

fiske said:

It looks like you are about to be flamed over tank size
... in my opinion oscars and several other commonly kept South American cichlids are really just too big for any glass aquarium.

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I thought that was the "predicted" flame... sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy, wasn't it?

talking down to him

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please show me where anyone "talked down to him" ? asking for information about his tank certainly doesn't qualify.

Why ask for water parameters if all you are going to do is recommend regular water changes and testing anyway.

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the reason for asking those questions is to insure that 'treatment' will be effective. if for example, he's got three oscars in a ten gallon tank, no amount of medication will cure the problem. you've got to also fix the cause of the problem ... stress. similarly for water chemistry questions. suppose he changes water once a month and never vacuums the gravel and suppose he's got 2 ppm ammonia, 3 ppm nitrite and 130 ppm nitrate. unless you resolve the water quality issues, you can treat hexamita until the cows come home but you're not going to solve the problem.

in each case you've jumped the gun, made an assumption that he's got hex and would suggest that he simply treat with some medication and hope for the best. the 'best' will never occur unless the fish are in a proper environment and the water quality is good. thus, like any doctor worth his salt ... you've got to have some information to go on before you make recommendations.

I'm not sure where "it looks like sirfunsun2 was about to be flamed" when all liv2 was doing was asking the appropriate questions needed in order to come up with a possible cause, the best possible solution and maybe offer something additional on top of it. Coming in and accusing liv2 is unfair IMO, he's always been courteous he as far as I know and has never given anyone a reason to state in a public forum that he was setting someone up for a flame. If you've seen threads in the past that showed "flaming" after those questions, the mods would have been the ones to handle that. Those are the threads to report. There's no reason to call someone out without even giving him the chance with the thread. You didn't even let liv2 come up with anything before you went accusing him.... and then call yourself the victim of a flame...

sirfunsun2, there is a lot of information out there in regards to hexamita and hole-in-the-head disease. Some say they're the same thing, some say hexamita is a protozoan that get's the hole-in-the-head going and thrives in the lesions, some say they are not related at all. All say that medicated food helps so I would stop with the meds your giving them. It can only stress them further. Meds from the bottle usually work on the outside of the fish, if this is hemaxia or HITH, you'll need to attack it from within and keep up with your maintenance. It would help if you had some pictures to post of the faces.

Oscars are very sensitive to their water quality. you must be able to keep NitrAtes below 20ppm at all times or they will be very suceptible to Hole in the Head disease (HITH). in order to keep the nitrAtes below 20ppm without doing water changes every day, oscars must be kept in very large tanks. an absolute minimum for a single oscar with NO tank mates is 75 gallons. for three, i'd say no smaller than 250g.