hey guys, i'm new to this forum and to fish keeping and have already hit some problems! i made my first mistake when i listened to the advice of the proprietor of my local aquatics shop. he told me "Your 5" oscar will be fine with these baby 1.5" oscars". LIAR!!! i introduce my 2 baby oscars (Sharky and George the crime buster of the sea) to my tank and within the hour had to poke my bigger oscar with a stick to make him spit out George. Sadly... no... heart splinteringly tragically, i was too late and the damage to George's head was so severe that i had to help him on his way to Elysium, R.I.P.
Now Sharky, Who witnessed the brutal murder, temporarily became best mates with Killer but now has decided to just hide away instead. this all happened 2 days ago and i have barely seen Sharky since. i have managed to get some blood worms into his shelter but he is refusing to eat them and im not sure if i want him to come out just yet because of the obvious dangers. i am awaiting the arrival of an isolation tank but fear that poor little sharky will starve first and even if he doesn't he might have to stay isolated for a while until he is too big to fit in Killers mouth!
Any advice? Other than feeding the afore mentioned proprietor to a large hungry fish?

Thanks for taking the time to read this.


Jim

Yep, you've found out the hard way that Oscars and little fish do not mix, whether they are the same species or not. Unfortunately, your little one is going to be at great risk of being gobbled up as long as it remains in the tank with the large Oscar. Even if the large Oscar cannot actually swallow it, it will try and eat it which will end in a fatality.

As soon as you can, give the little fish its own tank and I'm sure that you'll see a completely different side to it. Fish know when there is danger around and they will become very stressed which is not good for them.

BTW Welcome to our little community

If i were you i would take the baby oscar back and tell the shop that the 5inch oscar ate the other when he said they would be fine, i would demand my money back for both. If you dont get it dont shop there anymore

If you dont want to take the oscar back then you have to find a way to divide the tank ASAP or the baby will end up eaten too

With oscars, if it will fit in their mouths, they will try to eat it whether it is another oscar or not

thanks guys. you have helped me make up my mind. im not going to wait for the iso tank to arrive, instead i'll give Sharky to a friend of mine. at least until he gets a bit bigger.
P.S this is a great site, thanks

I dont think its cannibalism he simply didnt either like your fish or thought it was a small food item. Anywho its hit or miss with oscar the one two dead oscars in the back would agree with me. So you could put two osccars togother and theyd be fine or theyd fight it out to the death you just never know but jw what size is ur tank?

Matt E. fish lover wrote:


Matt, the oscar was trying to get a meal, the fact it was a baby oscar was irrelavent to the big oscar, so yes it was cannibalism

its a 240 litre so from my limited knowledge it should be big enough to keep em happy. im inclined to agree with you as my bigger oscar seemed to show more interest than aggression towards the others but with the same result. Sharky is getting adopted tomorrow its all sorted, I just pray to Cliff Richard that he can survive the night!

I had to separate 1 inch oscars from half inch oscars because they were eating them....they couldn't fit whole into their mouths so they ganged up on the little ones and picked them to pieces. Anyone at a LFS should know that about Oscars...Shaz