Hello, I purchased two small Tiger Oscars, "Ted and Ruskie" (under 3 inches) 4 days ago and released them into my 150 gallon tank with two small Blue Acaras and 4 large silver dollars. Also in the tank was a 4inch red tail black shark, the black shark absolutley went into a crazy territorial fit against the Oscars, basically pushing them into the back corner of the tank and chasing them in the event that they tried to move anywhere towards the rocky centre area of the tank.
So anyway, about 5hours after the introduction of the Oscars and this behaviour from the shark i promptly removed the shark which was an ordeal as i have a lot of tunnel rocks etc so this would of stressed the poor Oscars to the max, poor little guys.
Anyway since this event i have two of the shyest Oscars I have ever seen, its been nearly a week and they wont come anywhere near me, just hiding in that back corner of the tank, I feed them and they still hide, so i hide behind the couch and watch them from there, they come out and feed happily and are a healthy colour and dont have cramped fins etc, i tested the water parametres which are all fine, all the other fish are fine. Basically my concern is that the terrorising start to life in there new home as permantally traumatised the poor little guys! What do other people think? I should of been a bit smarter about introducing them with black shark, knowing how territorial they can be and the similar colouring of the tigers, though i did get several opinions, i guess the shark was just too used to being the boss!!
Also, my tank has LOTS of hiding places for small fish, so im assuming as the Oscars get older and a bit too big to hide they may come around, i was also thinking of removing the majority of rock etc for a while so they dont have as many places to hide and will adjust to my presence quicker if they cant wimp out all the time! Yeah, so any thoughts?? I only ask as i really love Oscars and the last Oscar I had was an extremely sociable fella!! How i miss him!
Thanks very much!!!
