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I have two oscars which are currently living in a 30 gallon tank. (yes I know it's too small) The larger red oscar is damaging the smaller tiger oscar. The red is 7 inches and the tiger is 6 inches long. The tiger is the one to usually start the fights but the larger red always finishes them. Are they fighting just because the tank is too small or for another reason? Also, short of buying a new tank which I do not have the money to do, what can be done? thanks, Andy

Hi Andy,

If you realllly can not afford a bigger tank and reallly don't want to part with them: LOWER the temperature, bring it down slowly to like 72F. What temp are they at now? They seem to be more inactive at low temperatures. Try puttting a divider, build one, well, hmm if tank is too small dividing tank may Really make them cramped, but you can try dividing with fine-wire mesh trying to somehow maximize their range of movement given the space constraints. With a small tank it's hard to say if there is possibility they may be trying to "pair-up", unless you know you have a male and female. If fights are pretty violent you should separate them somehow. Put one in your bathtub Good luck, o yea -check the recycler in your area you may vary well find someone willing to give away a 50gallon tank or trade you for something.

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

hey joe thanks for your reply. I had seperated the two oscars but just this morning, I put them back together. They began to act in a strange way that makes me think they are mating. They will circle each other and then they will bite each others mouths. Sometimes the red will bite the tiger and sometimes the tiger will bite the red. They will also "yawn" at each other. Is this common mating practice? I read on this web site a little about mating rituals and it said something about tail slapping. What does that mean? I put a slate rock in there for them to spawn on. If they do spawn, should I leave the rock with the eggs in the tank or move it to another tank. I have a ten gallon tank also. Anyway what do you think about it all? What else can I do to help them?

Hi Andy,

Yes, yawning in unison is a good sign. The female usually tests the strength of the male to see if he's fit to father its offspring etc. If they do happen to be a pair and they spawn, leave eggs in there until they hatch at least, but make sure plenty of oxygen and good water quality otherwise eggs will fungus and die. Later you can take some out if you wish and grow in separate tank, but I'd say leave a few with parents, its cool to watch them with fry. One thing, this liplocking, is it very violent when they lock lips(ie causes bad damage etc.)? If it's very violent it's not good.

Joe
Cichlidfish.com

Joe, yes the lip locking does seem to be fairly violent. The larger one which I am assuming is the female (although I'm not sure) does not seem to suffer any large injuries. The smaller tiger oscar does seem to get beat up quite a bit. I just put him in the tank with the red oscar and with in half an hour the tiger had scrapes up and down his side with "skin" hanging off. Also he would shy away from the other one and put his head up into a corner where the other one couldn't get to him. The red will then come in and try to lip lock or something and the tiger will swim away and avoid her by going on his side. Also when he gets that beat up, he won't eat. I figured that when an oscar is too sick to eat, he must be banged up pretty bad. Am I right in thinking that or am I just being too over protective of them? Could you tell me how to tell if an oscar is too banged up? Joe I really appreciate your help and advice! Thank you so much. Andy

Hi Andy,

Well, if one oscar is "definitely" winning all the fights you should probably separate them. Even if they do happen to be male and female and not two males or something, if the female can easily beat up the male it probably won't breed with it. I recommend separating them somehow and try feeding a lot of high protein food to your smaller tiger oscar. Then if possible I would let the tiger stay in the tank by itself for couple days or so and then bring back the other oscar. So basically you're changing "home-court" advantage. Also, tell me when they fight, do they try to bite each other on the sides a lot, and/or "RAM" each other on the sides or do they just go for the mouth lip-lock?

Joe
Cichlidfish.com

Joe,
Sorry that I haven't gotten back to you-- yes, they do try to bite each other's sides a little bit but mostly after the larger oscar has beaten up a little on the smaller tiger. In the beginning of the fight, they mostly just lip lock and swim around and around each other. Their peculiar swimming patterns more than anything else makes me think that they must performing some sort of mating ritual or something. The tiger oscar is just about healed up now. I think I'm gonna put him back into the tank with the red and let them go at it again and see if the tiger doesn't do a little better this time. By the way, when you said a high protein diet, how high do you mean? Do you mean all fish or what. I have two different types of pellets one with 30% protein and one with 40% protein. Are those ok?
Andy

Hi Andy,

To condition fish for breeding you need to feed a lot of meat to them, especially live feeders. I recommend some type of life feeders, yes goldfish are ok too if you get them from good source. I've used shrimp in the past, I used shrimp meant for human consumption bought from foodstore. And yes swimming together is good, the male will usually do some fancy swimming moves, like sometimes race to the side of the female and stop there or do a kind of tire spinning thing where he goes kind of back and forth, i mean like one inch forward and backward very fluid movement hard to explain but cool. So the male usually does all this fancy swimming around the female. Let me know how it goes after you re-introduced them. take care,

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

You can also try giving them some crawfish. Being from the deep south, my oscars have always found crawfish to be a "huge" treat!:) And don't worry about the claws unless they are way to big, then I suggest you break them off. I don't know about ya'll but have you ever tried crawfish!! Trust me they enjoy that little treat!

Good idea Kickstart, I'm going to give them a try, havn't fed any of my oscars crawfish yet. Hehehe maybe give em a big one just for fun?

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

Go for it!! Even though the crawfish is way too big for the mouth...trust me they will find a way to fit it in. You kinda have to watch them a bit though...they will slam themselves into the sides of the tank or mabey even the rocks and decor trying to break the crawfish up. It's truly is a show they put on for you! Enjoy..

Hey Kickstart,

Where do you get your crawfish? I went to several fish stores and nobody seems to have crawfish as feeders or anything. Where do you think I might be able to get some live ones? thanks,

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

I get crawfish from my creek:)

LUCKY YOU!! Man, here in the city we waste a fortune on fish food You are sure lucky Jay, wish I had a creek nearby. So got some good fishing rivers in your neck of the woods? Yep, I love fishing besides fish keeping, and no catch and release either
Sure missing some of that fresh cut-throat trout.....

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

I keep forgetting that not everyone has crawfish making there lil mudd chimneys in there front yard!!! ARGH! Being from south louisiana(Baton Rouge) it's easy to find them. I'm not exactly sure where you live Joe, but I'm sure you already asked the LPS about it. I don't know what to tell ya besides having to special order them from a distributor, which is probably expensive, just for a treat. I found that my O also loves crickets...the only thing is..he eats about 4 of them. And if doens't get 4 he tends to splash me...oh hell, everytime I open the lid he wants to jump out and give me a hug Later!