i have 4 o's and they all started out the same size 2 months ago. now i have 2 that have grown very fast and 2 that are growing swoly. the 2 bigger ones snatch most of the food before the smaller ones get any.now my question is should i divide the tank and try to get the smaller ones to the same size as the others?as of right now the bigger ones dont seem to pick on them they just hog the food.one of the smaller ones acts like he gets disgusted when he cant get his food and then he dont want to eat.any ideas?thanks.bigbigdaddy669

p.s. i forgot the sizes the bigger ones are about 6 inches long and the smaller ones are between 4 and 5 inches.the biggest one is analbino tiger and aregular red osacar the smaller 2 are both red oscars.they are in a 125 gallon tank. thanks again

well the only thing that i can think of is that you should try and get yourself a piece of glass cut to the size of your tank but you want about half an inch to an inch gap at the bottom for the circulation but not big enough for any of your oscars to squeeze thru if you understand what im saying, but apart from that your better offf asking OFL or one of the more experienced guys on here,
but let us know the outcome

regards ash

I'm not sure dividing the tank is really the way to go, although the need to make sure that the fish got some food. I can totally sympathise with your situation, it does tend to be all for one and one for all at feeding time when it comes to Oscars and the smaller fish can often get pushed out. I would suggest getting yourself something like a large net, or something you can put in the tank and gently push the larger Oscars out of the way so the small ones get some food, it's worth a try. Failing that, you could put a divider in at feeding time and try and separate the smaller ones for the large ones at least they do get fed but I'm not sure putting a divider in permanently is really the way to go.

Have you tried getting someone to feed the larger Oscars at one end while you feed the others at your end? it's worth a try. I can't side had a real problem with this. All my Oscars have always grown uniformly. Remember that not all Oscars grow to exactly the same size, you'll find that some Oscars to grow a lot bigger and quicker than others, even though everybody is being fed properly. Another thing you could try is getting floating and sinking food and feed and chuck some of that in in one sitting. The bigger Oscars can't eat the sinking and floating food at the same time.

thanks for the idea. i wasnt going to put the divider in permanent,just for a day or so cause i do want them all to get along together in one tank thats why i bought the big tank. i will try to nudge the big ones out so that the others can eat though.thanks for the great tips!!

Oscars grow at very different rates I remember 2 of mine had doubled while the third barely grew then one day BAM he just exploded and is now the largest of the 3!

When feeding try to spread the food all over the tank at once so that the bigger ones cant hog it all

when i added my two juvenile o's to my tank i had the same problem only it was the smaller ones who ate all the food.spreading the food around the tank as delboy suggested was the way i fixed my prob.