Oscar Behaviour

[Spishkey]

morning all!

quick question about behaviour, hope someone can help.

the past few nights after lights out, me and fella have been watching the oscars and have seen them, i can only describe it as kissing? (looks like they are locking their mouths together?) and 'rolling' around each other, they have also been moving the stones and gravel about in the tank leaving big bare patches everywhere, as soon as i put things right they are busy moving more.
if any of the catfish come near them, the bigger oscar goes for them and seems to 'bite' the catfish on the tail or side.

im wondering whether to rehome one of the oscars or the catfish, it is like world war 3 in there at night.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

how big is the tank, what's the full stocking list and how old are the oscars?

are the oscars a breeding pair or did you just get 2 oscars and put them in together?

the lip locking thing sounds like agression tbh, unless the oscars are a properly formed breeding pair this will lead to serious tussles and most likely the weaker will be killed.

 

[petertr]

I had oscars for over a year - 3.

Within a month, they'd hammered one of them to the point where I had to take it out.

Even then, they would fight every few days - exactly as you are describing.



Oscars are fun, and grow quickly - which I'm sure a lot of people like. But they make it tough to have a "pretty" tank, as they wreck anything you put in.

In the end, I grew tired of my oscars, as I couldn't do anything with them - I replaced them last week with discus.

 

[Spishkey]

hi. i dont know anything about these oscars, they were the ones i rescued about a month back (there is a thread someone!)
someone guessed from there size that they arez over a year old. as far as i know they have always been together.


tank is 480L 2 metre long

erm stocking?

2 x oscars

4 x various catfish

thats it!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well oscars reach sexual maturity around 1 yr to 18 months old. when they do they will see any other oscars as either a mate or a threat, if they have not paired up then it will be a threat and they will fight until one of them kills the other.

there's no sure fire way of getting oscars to pair up, it's generally recommended to get a group of 6 juvi's and watch behaviour as they grow up, then if two of them pair off you return the rest of the fish to the store.

i'm guessing a lot here as there's not a lot of background to go on, but if you had to rescue them then they probably came from someone who didn't do their research and ended up biting off more than they could chew. if this is the case it's pretty likely that they just bought two as juvi's and assumed they'd pair off and get on fine. this is unlikely to have worked.

I suggest you read up a lot on breeding and fighting behaviour and try to work out what yours are doing, but tbh it sounds like fighting to me and if this is the case it'll only get worse unless you re-home one of them.

 

[Spishkey]

well ive looked at some sights but am still no better off

quote from the oscar study page "A mating pair becomes evident because of mating "play", which is a seemingly aggressive behavior towards each other; lip-locking, tail-slapping, quivering. One odd thing is that they will open their mouths in huge "yawns" in unison. If one of the fish is overly aggressive, and the aggression is obviously one-sided, then separate them. Although this mating play is rough, it does not involve one fish dominating the other. "

but then on another page they say lip locking is a sign of an incompatible pair or fighting between two of the same sex.

i dont know what to think

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well ive looked at some sights but am still no better off

quote from the oscar study page "A mating pair becomes evident because of mating "play", which is a seemingly aggressive behavior towards each other; lip-locking, tail-slapping, quivering. One odd thing is that they will open their mouths in huge "yawns" in unison. If one of the fish is overly aggressive, and the aggression is obviously one-sided, then separate them. Although this mating play is rough, it does not involve one fish dominating the other. "

but then on another page they say lip locking is a sign of an incompatible pair or fighting between two of the same sex.

i dont know what to think

oh dear! I can see how that's confusing certainly.

I've never had a pair of oscars so I'm not really familiar with what mating behaviour would be to offer much practical advice. I think you may be better off posting in the NW Cichlids section for some more advice.

 

[Gatorbait]

Kind of hard to tell. With cichlids the female and male will liplock thought to be the female making the male prove he is strong enough to be of good genes.

The moving of rocks to make a bare spot is common in breeding but also Oscars like to rearrange their tanks anyways.

The "male" oscar chasing the catfish away is a sign of breeding but too hard to tell if the liplocking with the other oscar is a prelude to it or if he's trying to make the other "male" leave the area. In an aquarium he can't leave.

If it's not breeding behaviour and those are both males then the larger one will most likely ending up stressing out the smaller one and causing serious injury.

I'd seperate them to be safe.

 

[england]

hi there, ok i have a pair of oscars<not proven but alls that i can say is i had them over two years, i brought them together and theyve always been together,
oscars as all cichlids are terratorial and mildly aggresive, from what you say with lip locking, the digging of pits, head to tail quivering??going round and round in circles? this is tipical breeding behaviour, it looks scary and can be, esp if tanks small and theres nowhere for them to hide, for example even with breeding pairs, if they lip `lock and one pulls away to quickly its shown as a sign of weakness then the other one pursues them round the tank, if the loser cannot find somewhere to hide it could be killed,,,,,
mine often lip lock<goes on for hours>,quiver<going round in circles<they did this yesterday and it lasted 4hours>,clean rocks together,chasing other fish away from there chosen spot,never seen them lay eggs but theres other fishes that would make short work of there eggs anyhow......
but for the most of the time there side by side perminatly,,,,,,
i think theyre ok as id imagine by now they would be death or badly beaten,,,

this is all what ive learnt from books/internet/speaking with breeders etc

so basically how is this aggro? is its all the time?

 

[Spishkey]

no its not all the time, since ive had them they have stuck together, side by side all day and night. not problems. this new behaviour has only just started, it doesnt look too rough but i am going to keep a strong eye on it just incase.

 

[england]

yes, as always with cichlids you have to sleep with one eye open,,,,
see what happens, if it continues try removing them both, rearranging tank, replacing the loser first, then give a couple of hours and replace the victor,in a bag float for an hour, see what occours n release, if that fails, then rehome

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sounds like you should give it a try but make sure you have a plan B lined up i.e. somewhere to re-home one of them too.