Hey everyone, I hope I am doing this right. I have had 2 oscars for about a year now. One is a red oscar and one a tiger. I keep them in a 175 gallon tank, I have it set up nicely with plants and driftwood, I test my water weekly and have had no problems. I feed them beef heart, krill, crickets, and a staple pellet food as well. When I got them the red was only a little larger than the tiger, but since then has dwarfed the tiger by far. The tiger is eating well, and is growing... but not at the same rate as the red. I would say my red is about 9 inches long, while my tiger is probably only 5-6". Originally they got along great, but a few months ago red decided he didn't like tiger anymore. He began picking on him and it got so bad that I had to remove tiger from the tank and set up a "hospital" tank. I didn't think he was going to make it! His top fin was completely ripped off, his tail fins were shredded, he was missing scales all over, and one of his eyes was acting lazy? I thought they would just work things out but I guess not!! He did make it (thank goodness!), and like I said that was probably 2 months ago. So now I am wondering, should I attempt to but them back together? I don't have any other fish, just these 2 oscars. And if I couldn't keep them together, do you think I could divide the tank and that would be suitable for them?

welcome to the site.

yes, you can try to put them back together and see how it works.
sometimes, people rearrange the tank to disorient the bully and
create a new tank atmosphere.

in case it doesn't work, you can try the BGH time out net to
erase or lessen territorial dominance of the bully

PAUL wrote:

lol. BGH Time out net!
Keep close watch! Good luck!

time out net sounds so much better than time out bag lol. i wonder how many people killed their O putting it in a timeout "BAG"

I would put the big red in the time out bag and while he is in there put the tiger back in the tank, with a bit of luck that might sort out the aggressiveness of the big red, leave him in there for a couple of hours then just keep a close eye on them when you let him out of the net. If it turn out u got 2 males your in trouble.
Good Luck!

I had the same issue as the thread creator here. I bought my Red and Tiger when they were about 3 inches....I have only had them for 5 weeks or so when Tiger decided it was time to get rid of Red.

After some research I was able to determine why this happened. When I first bought the tank I put about 40 guppies in it knowing they would eventually be "happy meals" for the Oscars. I used them for the cycle process as well.

Well, what a coincidence - Tiger started attacking Red right after the last guppie was eaten. I found a description of this issue somewhere and it verified what happened to me.

I don't want to have to keep feeders in the tank so I took Tiger out for a few days and then put him back in. He and Red started rubbing up against each other and shaking their tales etc like a nice happy couple.

The next day Tiger decided it was time again to kill his "girlfriend". I took him out and this time returned him to the store.

Ok, from what I read, the only chance you have of having two Oscars get along is if they are females. This is what I read, so this is not coming from me.

I just wanted to tell you my story and the end result is that I am only going to keep the one Oscar along with 3 Silver Dollars and 5 Clown Loaches in my 180.

So sorry you had to give up your tiger! I know it sucks but I have to say it can be done. I have 4 O's, 2 in each tank, and they are fine and have been for some time! I have a male and female in each tank.

Good luck!!!

Win wrote:


It was no oscar, but my sunfish...

But the responses of the mods on OFL after the incident made me decide that this is a special place, with people who really care about fish!
Their reactions made me stay!

I hope i don't get this problem. I got a tiger and a red aswell. The tiger is a rescue fish and is about 7" while the red is a baby still only about 3". Got the tiger from a not properly treated petshop where they put it in a small tank with a 9" red so tiger was getting seriously bullied. Now the tiger is suffering from hole in the head. Week later after treating tank and feeding vitamins colour has improved and is much more active. only thing is that it seems to get annoyed sometimes with the little red who is full of energy. Hope it doesn't get worse. I've heard that disciplining the bully oscar can work sometimes. putting it in a time out bag and giving it a little nudge with the net when it attacks might work.

Time out NET, that is...!lol
I had some aggression between my Vieja and my Oscar.
The Vieja made my O knock himself out in the middle of the night.
When I was doing waterchanges 3 weeks ago the Vieja attacked my Oscar again, I and took my net and cornered the Vieja.
I threathened to catch him and after that every time she went after the O I just showed her the net.
Guess what, aggression has ceased and there's no fights anymore.
Fish can learn quite a bit.
Mind you it was just ciclid aggression, no direct damage on either of the fish.

Hahaha some one agrees with the net. I thought I was being a bit mean.

I decided to revive this thread considering i am having a similar problem with my red and tiger both about 2 inches. For the past few days or so my tiger has been bullying my red. Lip locking, or tryin to, along with chasing and sparing of sort. The red seemed to be holding his own for a while but is now hiding in the plants near the back of the tank. The tiger seems to like the front of the tank and if the red comes near he goes after him. At times even when the red is hiding the tiger will go over to where he is at to mess with him.
Are they just tryin to figure out who is the dominate one or do i have a bigger problem on my hands like two males, one trying to kill the other?
Later today im planning to do a water change and im going to reaarange the tank a good bit hoping that helps some. If not i might have to resort to the previously mentioned net method to try to decipline the tiger. bad boy! :angry: