My two oscars have started fighting,today .I am not sure but i think it has been since i fed them a prawn each over the weekend .Every time i go in to the room they both swim up to the top of the tank looking for food,when they dont get fed they will start on each other! the smaller one will start it ,the larger one will bat him with his tail,then both will keep biting each other ,scales flying all around the tank,both are very marked up.One is about 3 inches, the other is about 4 inches .Both oscars have never had any marks before Help!!!!

I don't think anyone can give you an absolute conclusive answer for why they fight, they could be any number of reasons such as dominance, maybe males fighting between each other, competing for food, it's impossible to say. you normally find they start squabbling as they get older. I tend to leave them to it if the fighting isn't too bad and injuries are superficial. I've never had to spit the Oscars up before but I have come across people who have been forced to do this because the fighting is so bad. It will be impossible for us to tell you what to do for the best because we are not observing your fish. If you feel that your fish are not getting on and the fighting is getting worse then it may be a case of splitting them up.

Maybe the BGH's Time-out-bag may be an idea to ease the fighting if it gets too bad.

Noddy wrote:

Oh yes i have read about that!!I will see how things go!!Thanks

If they don't harm themselves badly, give them couple of days, if they don't seem to stop, then go for time-out-bag process. because my albinos started fighting a few days ago. Since they have enough space and hiding places in my pond i gave them some time. after like 2-3days they turned out to be ok with each other.
So I think it's better give them sometime, but keep your eye on them.

My Oscar @4-5" is starting to bully around my 10-11" Jack.... Its funny to see except they both get inside this big roman structure and the jack backs the O in the corner and he tries to escape through the holes that he used to fit through but he is now too big and scrapes the hell out of himself.. Seems that every time one side heals up, the other gets gouged... Its just scratches and they heal in a matter of days... But you would think he would learn that he doesn't fit anymore... lol
Let me know how the time out bag works.. Last time the O was in a bag from the fish shop, He turned it into a sprinkler by the time he was home... Must have poked 100 holes in it from thrashing.

i had mine about 10 months, then one day the big one decided it needed to kill the smaller, i hoped the violence would pass but after 3 weeks of moping the floor and worrying i took the smaller one to my LFS and donated it to their bigass display tank.

less than a week later i saw him for sale for 79.95... i was rather pissed off about that.

tjwads wrote:

at this stage, they eats like pigs and will compete for their share. i suggest
you give them extra amount of foods and observe how would they react once belly
full. o usually rest when belly is full.

lol so very true.

PAUL wrote:

Yes, keep ém stuffed, that works for my fish.
A Stuffed predator is a happy predator!

Leave your oscars to it unless one is getting badly injured or is hiding at the bottom all the time. If this happens put a divider in until all fish are healed. Then put the dominant fish into the others side. If the dominant fish still batters the other then remove one (if you have to get rid of an oscar I suggest always rehome the most aggressive fish). If they get, on remove the divider after 4 or so days

Thanks all, for your advise,thing seem to have settled down since i have been feeding them up!!Hopefully they wont get to bad !!!!Hope i am not feeding them to much lol!!