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Something is wrong with my oscar. Physically speaking, he does not look too good. He has what can best be described as a large depression on his head between his eyes. There are no scales here, and it actually appears to be somewhat deep. He also has smaller, but similar looking injuries elsewhere on his head. His lateral line is missing scales in certain parts, and his fins are damaged. The thing that is baffling is that he behaves normally. He is active, eats well, and always rushes to the front of the tank when I walk by.

I do not have specific water parameters to give, such as pH, hardness, or nitrates, but I can get them if needed. I can tell you that I have kept fish for 14 years, and this particular tank has been running for 11 years. Diseases are not something that I have much experience with. The oscar is housed in a 55 gal tank with an external power filter (this has been in operation for approximately 6 years), and a temperature between 78-80 degrees farenheit. I have had him for 3 months, and this "disease" has manifest itself for about a month now. At first it got worse, but in the past two weeks it has stabilized. The tankmates are two red-lined torpedo barbs, a hoplo catfish, and a bristlenose pleco.

Does this sound like Hole-In-Head? If so, what can I do? Is the damage reversible? Please remember, the oscar does not appear to be diseased in a "behavior" sense; his physical appearance is what concerns me.

Yes, it sounds like HITH. Do a google for it an you'll find a few solutions. To sum it up - it is most commonly thought to be caused by POOR WATER CONDITIONS and then Vitamin defficiency. Specifically, it is meant to be a realative of human scurvy... so you need to feed the fish Vitmain B & D in particular. In more rare cases, it is thought to be cause by hexamita parasite.

Your nitrates are critical in stopping the HITH and saving your fish. You need to start measuring your nitrate levels and doing 20-30% water changes daily until you get Nitrates back under 10ppm. Once you have them below 10ppm, it's time to drop the size of the water changes and only make water changes when the nitrates start to get about 15ppm.

Your fish is still eating, so it would also be good to start treating it's food with a good water soluable multi vitamin. Simply soak the fish food in the liquid multi vitamin until it is just soft. Feed it to the fish one pellet at a time, and only as much as it can eat in 3 minutes.

Of course, if you measure the Nitrates and they are below 10ppm - which will really depend on your water change schedule which you give no info on - then there's a good chance it could be hexamita. There are a few good treatments you can get in the USA for hexamita, including Metro.

I'd suggest even if you do start treating for hexamita, you start the fish on the vitamin supliment. Addition of things like Melafix will NOT help you - this can only be cured by diet and treatment of the parasite if it is a parasite. In most cases it is water quality and diet.

As for the scaring, it will reduce, but the damage is permanent

I will get a nitrate test as soon as I am capable. I do water changes every 3-4 weeks, changing about 40% of the water.

I will also look into getting the vitamin supplement you talked about. Thank you for your response.

Oscar + 55G and only 1 water change per month? That's your problem. I've got 2 Oscars in a 75G tank, and i do 2 * 15% water changes EVERY WEEK! That's 30% per week. Minimum... my nitrates never peak above 15ppm. Anything above 40ppm can kill your Oscar - or cause disease like HITH.

Most people will tell you NOT to keep an Oscar in a 55G period. Personally, i think it can be done PROVIDED you have a tank AT LEAST 2ft wide by 2ft high (your Oscar has the potential to hit 15"s. Mine are 12"s a piece...) and no other fish in the tank.

I suggest you start those 20-30% water change right now, and test tomorrow. I'll gaurantee with one Oscar in a 55G after a few months of only one water change, the nitrates will be through the roof.

As a general rule 55gal is on the small side for an oscar, they are a big fish and i would recomend a larger tank. though if well maintained/filtered a 55gal could be ok. though i dont know how large those other fish get or the bio load that will place on the tank.

on the topic of filtration if by power filter you mean canister then that should be ok provided the filter passes the entite contence of the tank through 4 times per hour (i.e. in your case 220gal p/h)

as for water changes every 3-4 weeks is a bit far apart, once a week 30-40% change is the aboslute minimum i'd do for an oscar in a 55gal twice depending on how my back is feeling.

as jester mentioned nitrates are the main cause of hith and given the sparcity of water changes i would atribute it to that. get on top of this straight away, get some vitamins, if you do theres a good chance of full recovery (including the scaring.)

also get a master test kit, it will help you to gauge how ofter water changes are required.

best of luck to you any your fishy!

if i can help with any aditional advice let me know.