Hey all, I've been reading around the forums for a while and can usually find the exact answer I'm looking for, but lately I've been somewhat stumped so had to finally chime in.
I have a single oscar named Ceviche who is about 7 months old, and 7 or 8 inches long. He has no tankmates as he enjoys his space and he is indeed a bit of an aggressive glass banger. His mouth has been stuck open for some time (like, a month or two) though he can close it about a third or almost halfway when I come in the room and he gets all excited to eat (looks like he's yelling at me). When he's cruising around however, it's open all the time.
I had thought this normal until recently.
There are no visible wounds or anything inside of his mouth, it is nice and whitely clean. One thing I did come to realize is that I had had my tank completely up to the top with water, so when he would charge his food pellets he'd hit the glass lid very frequently. I've since remedied that by bringing the water level down a few inches but don't know if it's too late to reset his jaw or anything.
As stated he lives alone so there's no competition for the food which is still able to eat, and he still has a voracious appetite and all of his oscar-ey attitude.
Besides the mouth being stuck open the point of concern is that underneath his lower jaw I noticed a protrusion that I haven't been able to see in pictures of other people's oscars. Where his head and... torso (?) meet it looks like a bony spot. Could this be indicative of breakage?
If he's eating still and looking healthy should I just let it be? I've read about the jaw thing, but the bony protrusion- sort of the white Q-tip thing running under his jaw in the photo- is what I'm not sure about (and maybe it's normal!) so was hoping you all could point me in the right direction! Thanks for your time everyone.
I have a single oscar named Ceviche who is about 7 months old, and 7 or 8 inches long. He has no tankmates as he enjoys his space and he is indeed a bit of an aggressive glass banger. His mouth has been stuck open for some time (like, a month or two) though he can close it about a third or almost halfway when I come in the room and he gets all excited to eat (looks like he's yelling at me). When he's cruising around however, it's open all the time.
I had thought this normal until recently.
There are no visible wounds or anything inside of his mouth, it is nice and whitely clean. One thing I did come to realize is that I had had my tank completely up to the top with water, so when he would charge his food pellets he'd hit the glass lid very frequently. I've since remedied that by bringing the water level down a few inches but don't know if it's too late to reset his jaw or anything.
As stated he lives alone so there's no competition for the food which is still able to eat, and he still has a voracious appetite and all of his oscar-ey attitude.
Besides the mouth being stuck open the point of concern is that underneath his lower jaw I noticed a protrusion that I haven't been able to see in pictures of other people's oscars. Where his head and... torso (?) meet it looks like a bony spot. Could this be indicative of breakage?
If he's eating still and looking healthy should I just let it be? I've read about the jaw thing, but the bony protrusion- sort of the white Q-tip thing running under his jaw in the photo- is what I'm not sure about (and maybe it's normal!) so was hoping you all could point me in the right direction! Thanks for your time everyone.
