I purchased a Firemouth to put in the tank with my Oscars. I am curious if anyone else has a Firemouth. Mine does not seem to even go for the pellets that I put in the tank. It only eats off the scraps that come out of the Oscars gills. Is this normal?

I shouldn't worry, the fire mouth will soon catch on and start eating the pellets that you put in. When I first got my severums they wouldn't take pellets from the surface at all. As soon as the Oscars went into the tank, the Severums seem to realise that this was food and now they gladly take food from a surface.

Good choice on a firemouth, they make great tankmates for oscars. I used to have one and he was fine with the oscar i had. I am guessing he is smaller than your oscars. Hunger will soon get the better of him and he will start going for the food at the surface. He is probably still a little nervous of the oscars

He is about 20% larger than the Oscars. But the white tiger Oscar is the dominate fish in the tank. They seem to be getting alone really well now... only took about a day really. The firemouth is still not eating from the top, but he is getting food. I am more so worried about the silver dollar than the firemouth.

Cool, always a firemouth or two around here as well, they work well with Oscars. Those I've had yet always seemed to be a bit nervous and preferred sinking food over going to the surface, but with suiting dither fish they go for it in the end. I tried all kinds of dithers and found an Oscar to be the perfect dither fish for them
One of my FM's at the moment is on top of the tank hierarchy and loves to chase the green terror around but won't bother the Oscar.

Mine is turning out to be quite aggressive. As the days have passed it has become the dominate fish in my tank.

I was wondering. Since you have one... or two. How do you tell the males from the females? I was in the shop where I purchased mine today. I noticed that there are two very distinct looks to the ones he has. It was Sunday so the owner was not in and his kids were working... who don't really care. But some have very orange bellies and some orange markings on their faces. Then the others have just little orange on their bellies. Is this an indicator of their sexes?

I've asked the same question here already although I've been keeping them for many years. Years ago I was told the males have more pointed unpair fins and grow fin extensions while the females don't. I noticed the same on my female though, think depending on breeding stock, that isn't a reliable criterium anymore. Generally males end up bigger and show more colour in most cases. Then again, a dominant fish might appear more colourful than a subordinate etc. ... the two I have would display dark colours with lots of red to pale colours with a slight orange, depending on the circumstances, i.e. tank mates/hierarchy, mood, substrate, whatever. So don't ask me:laugh: I believe to have two males but not 100% sure. They don't get along at all, but the pair I had would neither get along most of the time.

I was told the males top fin was much longer than the females (or the other way round-cant remember) and that the males are larger and more colourful