Hey all,

I'm new to the forum and have been keeping my new Oscars for about 3 weeks now and all is going reasonably well. Had a couple of panics but I think I'm getting there.

Anyway, I have a problem with one of my two oscars but before I go into it, i'll give you a bit of background.

My local fish shop is big on Oscars and I've always loved them as a fish so when I bought a new home I thought, great, time to get an Oscar. Looking in the shop, I found three in a tank, one was significantly larger than the other two who where huddled together behind a thermostat. Every time I looked in they pepped up and over the next few days while I was cycling the tank I thought, I'll get the two lil runts Help them out a bit. Which I did.

One of the lil fella's had some damage to his left fin but could swim ok and seemed happy enough. They actually seemed like pals. But now this is obv not the case.

My little injured dude is getting bullied hard now and as he's losing out on food the size difference between them is already noticeable. He hardly comes out of the underwater cave he's got and even then my bigger O casually rolls in there bites him up a bit and then floats off til he gets bored.

I know Oscars, and the way they are, so it doesn't bother me too much but is there anyway I can give the littl'un a boost to beef him up or help him heal as I think the other O knows he's weaker and won't let him fix up properly???

Whew soz for the long first post, any help would be appreciated!!

welcome to the site

a couple of questions for you. firstly how big is the tank you have your oscars in???

secondly how big are your oscars and are there any other tankmates in with them???



now if the bullying is sever enough you might want to consider using a divider to seperate the 2. this will allow the injured one time to heal and to get his share of the food.
this of course will only work if your tank is large enough hence the first question.
also tank size permitting you might think about getting dither fish as a target for the aggressor.

first, welcome to the site.

2nd, you have to give info as necro had requested in order for us
to help you analyze your concern.

there is no concrete explanation but in most cases
injured fish is usually being the subject of attack by
the strong one. it has been observed in almost all kind
of fishes that when one has problem, it becomes common
target until it is gone.

Hi and welcome!!!

i agree with necro about the divider... they are usually the best option, unless you want to sell one

ahhaha kind a similar thing happened to me but further down the road of owing em,,, odd thing was i just gave them a stern talking 2 now there bros lol . best of luck with it man.. but the divider does sound like a damn good idea