Like "bigtdotcom" my six inch Oscars are fighting moe aggressively. I had asked about gender and I don't think I'll be checking there holes. When the tank light goes on they open mouths, spread gills, jig about, body check and eventually lock mouths. They have caused scale damage. When I turn the light out they seem fine and are even clearing gravel forming a crater. Are they possibly mateing? If not, could adding decor to define teritories help?

You've got one of those situations where it could be something or nothing.. Try rearranging the decor, or adding some more decor, this may well calm things down. You say that they are okay when the lights go out. Why not try leaving the lights off for a lot of the time and only put them on for a couple of hours, see if this calmed things down a bit. However, if the fighting continues and injuries are being caused on a regular basis, you may have no option but to split them up. Like I've said to countless other people, it really is up to your discretion.

you had been covered by OFL.
what i can say is just "good luck"
whatever you may opt to do.

guyz, i ihave a question...i have a 7 in. albyno oscar and im planning to add a 2 insces oscar..is it ok???

jef wrote:

please start your own thread in the "oscar fish section" we can help you with your questions there....... and a intro in the "introduce yourself" section will be good as we can say hello to you there

I have heard all over that if one fish is a little bigger than the other, the bigger will be a bully. That used to happen with mine sometimes. If one did a particularly nice job beating up the other I sort of treated them to a time out. They haven't fought as much anymore. I don't know if that come with age or if the time out worked. I have read you can get a penalty box type of thing, but I just held one in a net under the water so he couldn't reach the others when he was feeling really aggressive. I only had to do it once and only for about a minute, until he calmed down. I think he learned I won't allow bad behavior. They are smart.

Of course get a big net so you don't hurt them.

i have also used the "time out" method to calm agression...i have a large net bag with wire hoops inside to stop the bag flattening ....i put the agressive fish in the bag and float him in the tank for a day!!!!!!! this removes ALL teritory the agressive fish has accumilated and returns the tank to the other fish he can still see the others but cant claim teritory ...and when you release him he is the new guy again !!!!! and has to re establish himself from scratch ....some times you may have to do it a few times for total sucsess but it will work ...after 2 sessions in the bag i only got to dip it in the tank and the repeat offenders hide for a few hours!!!!!!!!i have used this method many times and it has never failed