I came home today and was freaked out becaue my Oscars had been fighting both of them are banged up pretty bad. Both fish have always been real friendly to each other, like best friends, they would always move the gravel together, try to knock things together over and run there bottom lips along rock which to me seemed like things they would do if they were going to breed although they are to young and would almost always swim round together. There was never any problems between them except for a little bit of pushing and shoving which resulted in a few small scratches. As soon I noticed it I divided the tank with the lid of a plastic storage container which fitted almost perfect, there is about 0.5 inches either side between the plastic lid and the sides of the tank. I used all the drift wood and rocks in the tank to hold up the plastic lid. The fish that seems to be more worse off is Rex who used to seem to the more dominant one when they would push each other around, i thought he might have been a male? The fish i thought of being female, Fido, was pushing the other fish around and biting and making him stay in a corner when i got home. Both fish have large scratches, scales missing and both have a few small chunks missing, Im not sure what has made them do it? Yesterday, even though this site does not recommend it i fed them some feeders, baby koi. I got them from the shop where i get a lot of my fish and supplies from and I trust the people that work there. A few hrs later Changed about 30% of their water like I do every Sunday. Could either of these things have sparked a fight? I put the divider in dividing the tank about 75%-25% with the fish who seems the most beat up having the larger part of the tank because i felt sorry for him, the other fish has the smaller section as a punishment. All the other fish in the tank are fine including a redtail shark which is about 3inches long. The winning fish in the smaller section of the tank dosn’t seem to bothered and is swimming round but the loosing fish seems a bit distressed, sitting in the corner not moving to much.
All in all I’m pretty sure the will both survive as there is not real damage.
Do you guys think they will get over it and live together again? I really don’t want one to die or have to get rid of one but i will do whatever is best.

BTW tank is 4 foot and hold 350 liters

Thanx!

how old are they?
ive had this a few times with my o's but the few times it has happend they just stop and dont leave eachothers sides at the blink on an eye just like best freinds again.
im not the one to ask as i dont know that much but in my tank i just give the banged up one some of its own space with a divider and when hes felling good again i take it out and most times there fine. this hasnt happend to me in some time now it was when they were young i assumed it was to see who was boss?

how big are your oscars now?
350 liters is a 90 US gal tank, if they are more than
6 inches long or more, big enough to established territorial
supremacy..... any additional tankmate make them feel choking.
try to observe further, if they did not settle their differences,
they will end up both fully damage and stressed. before that
happen, re-home one of them. divider is not an option due to
tank size limitation.

sorry i forgot to mention they are about 8/9 inches long and i have had them for about 9 months.
I know a divider can not stay in the tank but i just needed to seperate them. Also i know the tank i on the smaller side and i do intend of up-sizing in the next few months to a 6 foot tank.

Well firstly, your tank really isn't big enough for two Oscars. The lack of space will only make things worse if they are going to continue fighting. It's very difficult to say whether they will be okay or not. I have got to Oscars in a 125 gallon tank and every now and then one of them will chase the other Oscar into a corner. The next minute, they are perfectly okay with each other. What you're going to have to do is use your discretion and decide whether or not the fish need splitting up for good. Obviously if injuries are being caused on a regular basis, it's not fair to keep them together. Keeping the divider really isn't an option as it doesn't give them enough space. It's impossible for us to make that decision for you because we are not observing your fish.

Not much help I know, but it's one of those situations where only you can make your mind up what to do.

Did this happen after or before you gave them koi fish for dinner?
If it happened after, it could be an aggression problem with one of them.
you have probably been told 1000 times but i don't recommend giving feeder fish to your oscars, it can make them aggressive.
but for your tank size, i don't think you have any other option apart from splitting them.
have you got a pic of the damage they have caused to each other?

(my cousin had 2 oscars which were huge, im talking 15/16 inches and they were so good together for about 6 years, never once did they fight, and one day he decided to offer them small goldfish, after they ate it, they become aggressive with each other and almost killed each other).

Just a thought. Moving things around in the tank has been known to stop Oscars from fighting. Thankfully, I've never had a situation where I've had to do this. However, I know of other people who have rearranged their tank and had success in stopping Oscars from fighting.

Hey i just made this account this morning so i could tell about my fish, well to get to the point your oscars are fighting. like it says on the site it could be a mating ritual but also i found that when the power went off last night i woke up this morning and they were constantly fighting because my filters had turned off, i hav one that blows bubbles, a waterfall and another blowing filters on my tank(will find out the names and tell you) but because they were off my fish were fighting but as soon as we got the power back on and the bubble blowing filter came on my oscars settled down and stopped fighting just went back to lazing around pretty much

i hope this helps out your situation

these are my oscars i took this about 5 weeks ago

Hey guys thanks for the tips. The tank is still divided but the fish have seemed to have settled down and are swimming round like normal. Tmrw i will be revoming the divider and moving round the stuff inside the tank, i will also be adding an interal Aquaone 2000lt/hr filter. They still have quiet a few scratches but r looking alot better then they were on mon.
Here are some pics i took just after i found out the had been fighting.

the way i look at the scratches, i believe your oscars
are both male, fighting for supremacy. i hope they will
become tamed once divider is removed. if not, you have
to decide which of them will go or need another tank.

hey yeah they have torn each other up a little hey, mine were fighting but not that bad, i've serperated mine again too just like yours but my black one is bigger and its the female because its gone through the egg laying process once before so i hav seperated them until the white one catches up a little in size to try cut most of the fighting out. when the rain stops here i will try get some good photos and post them on here for you to see

Hi Thanks for all the advice. I removed the divider after a few day and also re-arranged the tank but they were back at it with in 10 mins with no sign of letting up. I will give it one more go but if they fight again i guess i will have to make a hard choice and give one of them up as a second tank is not an option. I may even give both of them up and start again as i really wanted to keep 2 oscars even if it means getting a bigger tank, only thing is i know it might be hard trying to rehome a large fish and i want to make sure he/they go to a good home, different homes that is.