Oscar/Hole in head help PLEASE?

Question

my oscar is severly sick from hole in head disease and has not been eating for a week...ive tried metacycline from petco but it's not working at all....i'm very worried...

Someone told me to give him anything that ended in cillin, penacillin amoxacillin etc....

So i have this amoxocillin left over from when i was sick and i no its crazy but im desperate...do you think I should try treating him with this amoxocillin...I looked on pet warehouse and they sell amoxocillin for fish right on the website...I no it sounds crazy but that stupid petco meds is not working.,..PLEASE ANYONE give me any ideas or tell me if u think i should try the amoxicillin...please help my poor fish is soo sick

oh the reason why i dont take him to vet...is because no one within a 2 hour range sees fish...ONLY IN STL...nad he wont make it that far....

Answer 1

Sorry, but the amoxocillin won't work for hole in the head disease, but no need to take him to the vet either.

Hole in the head appears to be a nutritional problem as it starts off, then gets infected with parasites or bacteria that make it all the worse. The best treatments are as follows:

First really clean out the tnk. Major water change of 50-60% while cleanig the gravel as well as possible. Also clean the filter and install new filter media except for the carbon, leave that out.

Increase the temperature to 86-88 F Don't do this too fast. One degree an hour is plenty fast enough.

Add salt Put in 2 tablespoons of salt per 10 gallons. You can use table salt, just be very certain it's the kind with NO iodine!! Kosher salt is even better. No need to buy expensive aquarium salt for this.

You will need a vets help here. Call the nearest vet or stop buy his/her office and explain your situation, that you have a valued fish with hole in the head disease and you need to treat your tank with a combination of Flagyl (metronidazoel) and Chloramphenicol (Chloromycetin). But these are both pharmaceutical drugs that require a prescription to obtain. You need to add about 200 mg of each per 10 gallons of tank for 14 days. Ask him/her to write you a perscription or if they have the drugs in stock to fill that perscription. If they won't go to the next vet and try, sooner or later one will do it. If all else fais, call the fish vet 2 hours away and ask them to percribe their preffered treatment for your fish and call it in to your pharmacy for you to pick up. Fair warning these drugs aren't real cheap.

You will also need to feed your guy a little better variety of foods. Be sure he gets a good quality pellet, plus live or forzen foods, plus some veggies. Yeah, he'll eat some veggies. That will help him heal and help prevent the disease from coming back.

Even with all of this you might lose your fish, HITH disease is very serious and very hard to treat well.

Very best of luck with the big guy, please let me know how it works out for you


MM

Answer 2

HITH is an unfortunate disease because nobody really knows what causes it in the first place, and that makes it tougher to treat. Yes, people might tell you how sure they are that this or that part of your neglect did it, but they don't know any more then the professionals. It's even been shown they can be prone to it through poor breeding despite all the best care in the world.

The main instigate is a parasite called heximeta. I can't tell you just what meds to use, but knowing it is a parasite, and knowing the real name, might help you figure it out. You've already tried the main med used for this.

In the mean time we do know it is usually some form of stress that causes it, so just double check everything to make sure it's as it should be. The water is clean and well maintained, the gravel and filter are cleared regularly of waste, the fish is fed a quality, well rounded diet (at least when it ate), the fish is not with aggressive cichlids, the fish is in a proper sized tank of 60 gallons or more.

In the mean time, use small amounts of salt in the water, do water changes very often, and hope for the best. You can try random meds, but it's a risk - if you don't know what you are using and why, it can quicken the process as soon as slow it. Unfortunately when an Oscar loses its appetite it's a very poor sign.

Good luck.

Answer 3

OK relax it can take weeks and even months for it to heal. The first step it to diagnose the cause. 1 Is he getting a variety of food. 2 Is the tank dirty? 3 Is he being bullied? 4 pH ,nitrites temp so on is all correct? After you find the cause then you treat for it clean the tank vary the food turn up the heat etc. keep giving him the medicine and if in another week or a little more he doesn't show any signs of improvement then try the crazy way. Just be patient. Oscars can go months without eating. even when they are sick its not good but is OK. So its OK its not going to work over night.

Answer 4

I've had my Oscar for 6 years now and he has more scars on his head from hole in the head than I can count. The vet recommended a medicine we got at Super Pets. Comes in a pill form that you open and sprinkle in the water. Can't remember what it's called but it says on the pack what it treats. Plus giving them vitamin C drops once a month will help prevent recurrence of HIH. Also a good medicine to have around is Malafix. It treats any scrape or mark on your fish and is handy to have.

Answer 5

After a week of not eating and if the disease has progressed to the extent you are describing then you really need to step back and decide if medication will solve anything at all. Try a aquarium salt bath. 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons of water. This will aid in killing the infection if its not too late to save him. Sometimes though you just have to suck it up and tell yourself that sometimes you cant save them. And is more days of suffering through that disease the best thing for them....whatever you decide good luck to you. I know how it feels.

Answer 6

amoxacillin is an antibiotic used to kill bacterial infections. HITH disease is not caused by bacteria... The main causes are believed to be poor water quality, poor diet, or the introduction of carbon (filtration) in the system. Check your water quality. Keep ammonia at 0ppm nitrites at 0 pmm and nitrates under 40 ppm ideally under 10ppm. Are there larger more agressive oscar in the tank with him? Are they outbidding him for food or bullying him? Try isolating him and making sure that he gets enough to eat and it is a varied diet. Did you just recently begin using carbon in your filtration system? If you did... remove it, keep up on the water quality by doing regular water changes, and make sure that your fish is getting proper nutrition, You may also want to check if there is electrical current in your tank, from a faulty piece of equipment... see the web site for more detailed treament options http://www.worldcichlids.com/diseases/Adamhith.html

Answer 7

Unfortunately, the amoxocillin has other ingredients that can hurt the fish. But the person is right that you need a strong antibiotic. Try maracyn plus and also call a few vets and see if they know of antibiotics that can be used in fish tanks.

Answer 8

amoxocillin for a person is going to be WAY too strong for the fish, buy the stuff for fish off the website if anything

Answer 9

Say goodbye to your baby. Because no one would want to live with pain that bad:(