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I was at a LFS, checking out the big adult oscars. Three of them in a little box of a tank. They seemed healthy, except one's mouth..was open, and stayed open. ...it was really kind of eerie looking. He seemed to have white patches on his gills.

The fish guy saw me looking at him, and said he'd had that since he was only around 5 inches long, and that it's a condition called lockjaw. He said he could still eat and everything...

How is this caused? Anyone else ever heard of it?

I don't know what causes it, but one time a foot-long pacu we have at the store came down with something like that. The mouth was always open and the jaw almost seemed the be protruding.

He could still eat and was acting fine, but it was the strangest thing I've ever seen. Then one day, about two weeks later, his mouth returned to normal and he's been fine ever since.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I think fish like oscars get engaged in a little scuffle and someone comes out damaged. I saw one in an lfs that was about 5 inches and had half his mouth hanging open with the lower lip protruding. I was surprised to see he could still catch live fish. Personally, I would have begun training him for pellets. I never did like the fact that the fish store he was in only fed them live fish. Just not good enough, imho. Plus, that mouth issue could make it more difficult with time.

at my store, some of our blood parrot cichlids always have there mouth open too.? but they still eat pellets daily and seem to be doing fine.

The parrot cichlids have their mouths open because they are deformed and it is physically impossible for them to close it. Such a shame...]

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Yeah.. parrot cichlids are different, they're bred that way.

The guy made it sound like it was an illness the oscar mysteriously came down with... very strange. It was so weird looking. I would've bought the poor thing out of sympathy if I had room for it.

I've noticed this condition appear in my Cardinals. However, it has ONLY ever appeared in Cardinals that are extremely old, and not long for this world. The mouth stays locked open, and the fish has difficulty feeding. Then, after a few days of going hungry, it just rolls over and expires. But Cardinals have to be very old to manifest this. If this is going to appear, it appears in a specimen that's over 7 years old. And at that age, a Cardinal is pretty much into the realm of senility anyway. At least, I've yet to see Cardinals live much beyond 7 years, even though they have a habit of living long lives in my aquaria.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002