Friend of mine stayed for a few nights, when he left he forget his fighting fish. Well it was looking unwell, i researched, and found out its a tropical fish and he had it in cold water. So i took it out and dropped it in with the O's and the others, the others being im not sure what sort, just your run of the mill little fish, 5 of them, and the 2 baby O's.

The O's have been fine with the other fish, they dont harass them or boss them around too much although they are clearly dominant.

When the fighter came in the tank, it took him about a day to get used to it and start swimming around happily. His colour changed he looked alot my vibrant and happy in the tropical water.

Well, the O's were ok with him at first, as long as he didnt come to the front of the tank they didnt want him there. Well he followed the rules for a little while, then decided he wanted to try and challenge thier authority. They put him in his place, but never forgave him after that. They would chase him around and bite his ass every now and again, and then it just esclalated. I witnessed them attack him one on his tail end, the other on his head, holding and shaking, I thought they'd tear him in 2. Anyway he got away and went and hid in the little house at the bottom of the tank and wouldnt come out.

Ok so i reasoned that if i leave him in the tank, he will die of starvation as he is too scared to go and get food, if i take him out, he will probably live, even though the unheated water is no good for him, so i ended up having to get him out and put him back.

Having watched these fish i cant believe how fascinating thier behaviour is. Thier pack behaviour is just the same as dogs, just simpler.

Oscars can be bullies, they will pick on smaller fish if they think they can get away with it. In an enclosed environment they are naturally very greedy fish and will compete for food. I have never actually had an aggressive Oscar. In fact, in my 125 gallon tank I have a false jade eyed cichlid that doesn't take any crap from the Oscars whatsoever and he is half their size. The same in my 300 gallon tank, the severum is not frightened of the Oscars at all.

Keeping fish in an aquarium is not natural, I'm quite sure that you wouldn't see a lot of the behaviour in the wild that you see in your aquarium because the fish just wouldn't be forced into such close contact.

Cichlid behaviour and interaction is the thing which is most interesting to me about them, but of course can have some drawbacks and pose difficulties under the limited conditions were are keeping them.

I find my Oscar to be fine with almost any fish I put in with him as long as they will respect his "authority" and get out of the way when approached. Still every Oscar is different. For small fish, I would just expect them to get eaten at some point with a bigger Oscar, but even that works for some, lol.

Is there any way you could possibly get a heater for the betta, btw?

Yeh exactly. Mine i wouldnt say are "aggressive" id just they are dominant, and become assertive if the others dont play by the rules.

No I wont get a heater, i rang him last night his coming to get it today I told him that its tropical and it needs a heater too. Now that i think of it i dont think iv ever seen a fighter looked after properly, everyone keeps them in those small square unheated, unfiltered table top aquariums. Thats probably why people think they are lethargic fish. He was anything but in the tropical water.

Yes in the aquarium the fish are forced to behave differently. Like the fighter for instance, in the wild he would have hid from a predator until it was safe to come out, but in an aquarium, its never safe, so he would starve.

Metoo, 300 gallons ! crikey ! Lol

Whats that like 1400 litres or something. Did you buy it or build it ? I want to build something for the O's over the next few weeks, i was thinking something more sober that would accomodate my budget and not to mention my engineering skills, maybe 100 odd gallon or something.

300gallons uk = 1363Liter

TommyGun wrote:


What? Did I say that? What was I thinking .... boy, I wish!
Unfortunately it's only litres, I'm metric here as well
Either I was having one of those moments or just been too lazy again to do the conversion.
Nice dream though!

Oh just seeing you must have confused me with Penn