Hey fellow Oscar lovers,

Im new to this community in relation to Oscars.
I have been browsing through the site for a few days and it has been very helpful.

I have 3 questions that i would like to ask;

1) Is it normal for Oscars to seem like they completely despise each other?

This question is referring to my observation, that my Oscars(I only have 2) love to chomp on each other. Im not sure if a seperation of about 1 day is to blame. Im mainly concerned that one of my Oscars is starting to look a bit beaten.

2) What can I do to fix the problem?

I understand that this question may sound a little bit silly, as simply seperating them, however if there is another way to fix the problem or will they just make up and call it a truce.

3) Is it best to mix their diet up or just keep it simple?

Keeping it in mind that they are about 2.5 inches, sharing a standard 4 foot tank.
Im wondering about food like Blood Worms, Crickets, Blackworms, Tuberflex Worms and smaller fish.

This is a question we get asked all the time. It is not uncommon for Oscars to suddenly turn on each other for no particular reason and have a bit of a scrap. In most cases this behavior doesn't last for long, it doesn't result in any serious injury, and before too long they are swimming around with each other quite happily again. It is up to the owners discretion to decide whether the aggression is serious enough to consider splitting the fish up. Ask yourself a few questions. Are the injuries being caused on a regular basis? Are the injuries being caused very bad? Do the fish normally hang around with each other? If fish do you hang around with each other most of the time then there isn't normally a problem. If they avoid each other all the time then the chances are they don't really get along.

Some people suggest rearranging a tank to make things look completely different, Oscars are very observant fish and will normally notice any changes in their environment. Give them something to think about and it may take their mind off the aggression. This sometimes works if one fish has been there for a longer period of time and may have claimed territory. However, in most cases it doesn't stop aggression permanently. I'm afraid there really isn't any tried and tested way to stop aggression.

A mixed diet is always recommended. Good quality pellets as a staple diet, supplemented with what you have already mentioned. The only fish I ever give my Oscars are frozen Lance fish I have bought from the fish store, I don't actually give them shop bought feeder fish.

I'm sure other people will give you the benefit of their advice as well

ofl has you pretty much covered on this one. the onll thing i would add is earthworms into your feeding ritual. oscars as a general rule love nightcrawlers and they make an excellent source of protein for them.

I'm fairly new here so I am not qualified to offer you any advice. Welcome to the site... these people know their stuff!

I will tell you my experience... my 2 babies started fighting and I found out it was my water conditions. They weren't happy. Once that was cleared up, they were happy and now just do a little scrapping here and there. Of course they are young still and I'm sure the bullying will get worse. But once I fixed the water problem, they were better.

Again, welcome!

Brooksie

Welcome to OFL!

It is very common to have 2 totally groovy oscars getting along then in an instant they are squabbling. just make sure that it dosnt escalate into fighting, or if your o is getting beat to threads might want to remove him for a bit let him heal u may even have to seperate them for good. some o's are like that it your think is to small then theay will do this too for territory we had to seperate brutis and bubbles bacause he tore him up then we got a long finned veit late and so far theay are getting along

while they are still juvenile, bullying is not too much of concern... they will
have scrape but eventually swim together again.... however, when they grew up,
say 8 inches mark, bullying will be intense and one or both will get fair
share of injury....that is when your judgment will come in, to separate, to rearrange,
or to rehome....
here is one sample...

OFL has it spot on, dont worry about it unless the injuries get really bad. If you are not sure if it is really bad post a pic and we will tell you

Thankyou Everyone for your help, your information has eased my worries about my fishies. Looking forward to posting more on this forum. Great work!

Your Sincerely Chenga.

delboybully wrote:


They haven't received any bad injuries just some little bumps and bruises. However I was just worried about the little lashes of agression towards eachother.

it sounds like to me a bit of bullying on both parts. if it gets too bad go to the diy section i made a post in there about makeing a tank divider and divide that ank off giveing one a smaller part to roam in for about a week oscars do not like thrir territory invaded by this he will see the other one roaming and he cant do anything about it