Oscar fight!

[plebian]

That tank is big enough for ONE oscar and NOTHING ELSE. What you are witnessing is abnormal behavior because the fish are stressed.

 

[Floridapierce78]

That tank is big enough for ONE oscar and NOTHING ELSE. What you are witnessing is abnormal behavior because the fish are stressed.

A 125 gallon tank is only bug enough for 1 oscar?

 

[Floridapierce78]

This is nuts. I have 2 oscars. They are both roughly 10 months old ( or at least that's when we got them) they were tiny. Maybe an inch amd a half. One has blowed up in the last 6 weeks.the other growing as slowed down.
When the aggression started we thigh we might. Have a breeding pair., we still might. They go through the actions but no eggs yet
The larger one is always opened mouth pushing the smaller one around the tank.. but for some reason. It is very gentle. As the wounds are all caused by decor. They are always sleeping together and gently rubbing their tails and body together. I'm stuck! Is the one getting bullied and stressed or this some weird Oscar love making? Like IKE and Tina?.

 

[GaryE]

Give it time. They're juveniles, and you're seeing snippets of behaviour you don't get, yet. I would remove the damaging decor, because eventually, there will be an infection. Then I'd simply keep an eye on things, as long as the behaviour causes no injuries. I would use the time to save up for a second tank, just in case.

 

[GaryE]

This probably belongs in the controversial stuff thread, but I would never keep an Oscar in a 125. I have one here (the tank - no oscar) and when it was empty, I considered it too small for longterm with a large predatory fish. If I had a 380, I'd go for it. You want the fish to be able to move around. I think one of the reasons we like Oscars is we put intelligent fish in too small tanks, and all they have to do is pay attention to us. I've watched Oscars go about their Cichlid ways in very large tanks, but in 180 and under, they just sort of hover and hang around, alive.

 

[Floridapierce78]

This probably belongs in the controversial stuff thread, but I would never keep an Oscar in a 125. I have one here (the tank - no oscar) and when it was empty, I considered it too small for longterm with a large predatory fish. If I had a 380, I'd go for it. You want the fish to be able to move around. I think one of the reasons we like Oscars is we put intelligent fish in too small tanks, and all they have to do is pay attention to us. I've watched Oscars go about their Cichlid ways in very large tanks, but in 180 and under, they just sort of hover and hang around, alive.

Thank you so much. We are planning on getting a 240. It drives me crazy that even after I did my research. I was Still wrong. I just started fish keeping in Jan. I have studied allot in the last 10 months. Everything says 75 for one and 100+ for 2. I thought i was doing good with a 125 and a fluval Fx4 ,fluval 307 amd a Marineland magnum polisher. . And here we go. I got yo get a bigger tank. Amd to think. I started with a 36 gal bow front. Now I have 2 of them . A 60 gal tall 2 20gal and fluval flex 15 gal. And in am going to get a 220. Now really will that be big enough? Or what? I can't keep getting bugger tanks I live in a small house. The. Next tank will be the biggest and that's it. That's why I am asking. Will my two babies(Oscars) be happy in a 250gal?

 

[GaryE]

The problem is I could be very wrong, depending on your philosophy. I keep small fish because I'm not even convinced large fish like Oscars should be kept. A lot of people will keep an Oscar in a 75 and be happy with the results.
Listen to a lot of opinions and points of view, and see what fits with your sense of what you want. My Uncle had a really nice pair of Oscars in a 100 when when I was growing up. I wouldn't do it myself, but others do. he and his partner were both fishkeepers, and they kept up on the water changes for the 3 years the fish lived. I see that as a short time now, but.

 

[gilpi]

Be careful about intervening in this as this is nature and is what these fish do in the wild.

Perhaps but being enclosed in a glass box is far from nature, in nature one of them would have the opportunity to swim away. These are cichlids and cichlids do what they do. I would just have one in the tank.

 

[lottabubbles]

back in 1969 I had 2 red Oscars that were a mated pair but I had no idea. I raised them from 2inch fish. one week they had taken all the gravel and formed what looked like a volcano. we came home late one night and they had laid eggs and they looked like salmon eggs. the filter was too strong and it spread all those eggs on the bottom of the aquarium. they wound up consuming all the eggs. about a week later they once again built the gravel volcano and when we got back home this time they had killed each other. I guess they did that lock mouth dance again but this time they missed the mouth and took quarter size plugs out of each other's heads. they were 10 5/8th inch and 10 7/8th inch long. they throw a lot of water when they do that dance!!!

 

[Floridapierce78]

The problem is I could be very wrong, depending on your philosophy. I keep small fish because I'm not even convinced large fish like Oscars should be kept. A lot of people will keep an Oscar in a 75 and be happy with the results.
Listen to a lot of opinions and points of view, and see what fits with your sense of what you want. My Uncle had a really nice pair of Oscars in a 100 when when I was growing up. I wouldn't do it myself, but others do. he and his partner were both fishkeepers, and they kept up on the water changes for the 3 years the fish lived. I see that as a short time now, but.

I knew Oscars got large. I really didn't realize large. And they are not even a year old yet
I want them to have long happy lives. I will end up getting a 220+ tank for them if they are a pair. And if turns put that the one is just too aggressive. I will have to get another 125 and seperate them. I hope not. They have been at each other's side to since they were a inch long. It would break my heart.

 

[lnsaneM]

Oscars are just aggressive fish in general, my friend raised 2 oscars from babies in his 50 gallon and then eventually moved them into a 125, even that didn't work as one would attack the other one so bad it had cuts and bruises all over his body. He then eventually gave them away to a local fish store who put them into a huge predatory tank.

 

[Eggy Toast]

If anyone remembers my thread awhile back labeled " Oscar fight", about 6 weeks ago I think, time is going by so fast I don't remember. Well, the behavior is still going on itbhas changed so though. The larger one ( assuming it's the male) is still kinda beating up non the smaller one. However not in a way that hurts it. But it's either them Two laying in a the he they dug, doing Jerky head movements at a rock and / or swimming peacefully together. Or pushing each other around the tank. They are both approximately the same age. Maybe the larger one is a couple weeks older. We got the smaller one first and the second about a month later and it way about an inch longer.( this was when they were less than 2 inches). I was thinking , if they are not a pair, and the behavior is territorial, then why does the larger one refrain from hurting the submissive one? And if they are a pair. Why won't they get this over with. I am going to post a link to some videos I took this morning and if you look up the thread " Oscar fight" you can view the videos from 6 weeks ago.

0 new items by Edward Pierce

photos.app.goo.gl

How are you getting on with the Oscars? I've read through your thread as i have just purchased two same kinda size as you did and same scenario (but mine are still small) and they had their first fight.

 

[Ichthys]

Apologies in advance because it’s a long thread and I haven’t read most of it, but I kept and bred Oscars for 20 years, and have also raised and bred them several times since (there’s no better experience in fishkeeping than raising half a dozen Oscars from an inch or so to maturity, and I’ll do it again someday ) The minimum tank size for one Oscar to be ‘comfortable’ is about 4’x2’x2’. Any Oscar tank should be at least 2 feet wide and at least 4 feet long. For two or more oscars, 6 feet long.
Jaw locking means one of two things, either a male and female testing each other for ‘suitability’, or two fish of the same sex fighting.

If you raise two together from small they’re almost bound to grow at different rates. Raise half a dozen and they’ll all stay the same size as each other as they grow.

 

[Eggy Toast]

Apologies in advance because it’s a long thread and I haven’t read most of it, but I kept and bred Oscars for 20 years, and have also raised and bred them several times since (there’s no better experience in fishkeeping than raising half a dozen Oscars from an inch or so to maturity, and I’ll do it again someday ) The minimum tank size for one Oscar to be ‘comfortable’ is about 4’x2’x2’. Any Oscar tank should be at least 2 feet wide and at least 4 feet long. For two or more oscars, 6 feet long.
Jaw locking means one of two things, either a male and female testing each other for ‘suitability’, or two fish of the same sex fighting.

If you raise two together from small they’re almost bound to grow at different rates. Raise half a dozen and they’ll all stay the same size as each other as they grow.

Why is it that you think the two will grow at different rates and not the dozen? I'd have thought it easier to control the food intake with two?
There is a guy on YouTube 'the Do It Yourself King' or something like that. he has a tank of 6 feet with 6 Oscars and a Pufferfish all seemingly doing well.
After researching quite a bit i reached the conclusion that a 5x2x2 would be a good sized tank for them when mature. Now i have them, i'm finding more info questioning that.
Mine Oscars are only small today, bought seperately, one about 6inches, the other around 5. They get along fine for the most part but did have their first scrap a couple of days ago. I read that a rearrangement of the aquarium can stop it. I did that. They have stopped. I do realise that these fish are not even sexually mature yet. Thanks for any thoughts/advice.

 

[Ichthys]

Why is it that you think the two will grow at different rates and not the dozen? I'd have thought it easier to control the food intake with two?

It happens a lot with big cichlids. One gets a bit more food and grows a bit quicker, and then because it’s a bit bigger it becomes dominant and gets more food, and so on. That’s how I see it anyway. You’ll often get one growing much faster and ending up twice the size and bullying the other. With a few this doesn’t happen.
When I raise Oscars from smalI I give them as much food as they want and keep them ‘topped up’, so the fact that they’re growing fast may have something to do with it. If you were growing them slowly it might not happen.
I said it because I thought you had raised your two from very small. At 5” and 6” this probably won’t happen.