Hi Everyone, We have just added a new oscar to our tank to give our other oscar a friend and our old oscar seems to be giving the new oscar a hard time. They have been locking lips and it seems like our old oscar is really harassing our new friend they are both around the same size and I was just wondering if this is normal? Im thinking that our old oscar is just sizing the new one up and telling it that its the dominate fish would that be right? Your help would be greatly appricated

Oscars can be aggressive sometimes, they are certainly not the most aggressive cichlids but you do have to be a little bit careful. Just like cats and dogs, they won't necessarily except another Oscar in their vicinity. I'm afraid it's going to be a case of monitoring the situation and just seeing how they get on. If they keep fighting then you may have to remove the Oscar. However they may start getting on in a couple of days I live in harmony together. It is really your call

introducing oscar for an establish territory usually
get some resistance. new comer are usually treated as
intruder while the old one want to show who is the
boss. just monitor and be ready with a divider just
in case bullying got extreme.

lip locking is a sign of co-equal chance... meaning each one
is sizing up one another. if one is 1/3 smaller than the other
you have minimal chance of bullying because the small one will
just run away from the bigger one.

reneeclayworth wrote:


hi!
the thing i do when i add a new fish is to "reorganize" the tank. moving rocks and roots etc. i've even picked up fish fom the tank (before adding the new). may seem a little extreme (might add that i've never done this with oscars, only with predator malawicichlids)
good luck:)

So how is things going between the two now?

I am adding a new Oscar to my tank this weekend much like you did, basically to give my current oscar a friend and to keep me happy as I am a longtime fan of these great fish.

I have found in the past that by changing up the tank in conjunction with the new Oscar it can lessen the perception of an intruder. I have removed all the tankmates from my Oscar's tank and set them up in a new tank...so my Oscars can share the much larger tank and hopefully be very happy together.

I will let you all know how it goes, I really do not expect issues as it's allways worked out before.

Note: as stated above...the new Oscar is the bigger of the two, so I expect my current Oscar to avoid aggressive contact and become for a better lack of words "the Bravo fish" while the larger Oscar will be the "Alpha fish".

b40huckers wrote:


good luck.........

As smikeb said, its a good idea to rearrange your tank before putting your new oscar in, this will stop some of the territorial issues. dont forget to turn lights off when adding new fish, to lower the stress levels.
Good luck.

glen2009 wrote:


X2..............

Hope its works out for u guys. I am hoping to do the same in about a month when i get a new larger tank.

GOOD LUCK!

Just wanted to share it went very well, although there was a few things that went not as expected.

For the initial task I moved things around in the tank and turned the lights off. I then added the new Oscar (now named Boss) to the tank, splash of water everywhere but that was expected.

Boss went to the bottom and pouted for a few minutes then decided to take a browse around the tank.

Initial contact between Boss and Silent Bob were very calm, just a brush up against one another and then off in their own directions.

After about 24 hours in the tank I decided to try a feeding, and Silent Bob decided to eat everything as he punked the much bigger Boss for his food. Again this morning I attempted to give Boss some food only to have Silent Bob snag it all up...then it must have become an issue with Boss as he chased Silent Bob around the tank until he spit out the food (he had more than he could chew).

So far the two seem to be getting along pretty well, I am very happy with how it turned out and Boss is a great addition.

glad to hear it all went well for you ....the little tips to help the intro make the whole experience easier and less stressfull on the fish ...

Well done b40huckers, any chance of some pictures?