Hi I am new here and have a question. I have had my oscars for about 2 years now and about 6 months ago 2started laying eggs ...I wasn't concerned at the time because the eggs would always disappear over night. I started with 3 oscars 2 tiger and one albino. However one of the tigers died mysteriously after this egg behavior started, now I have the albino and one tiger and they continued laying eggs about once every other month and the eggs from this batch seem to be hatching!! I know almost nothing about fish and I love my oscars but never had any intention of breeding them..in fact the last few months there care hasn't even been the greatest with the increase in the housholds work schedual as well as running a childcare in home. My question is...what are the chances of these fish producing surviving young? and if they do what do i do with them? They have destroyed their tank in the process of this egg laying and are very territorial and i cannot even get in there to replace the tubes they ripped up or clean, they have removed all the gravel from the undergravel filter around the rock the eggs are on??? what do i do with these fish...lol plz help with any advice

Welcome to OFL

I suppose the first question would be, do you want the babies to survive? if the answer is yes then you're going to have to invest quite a lot of time and money into this venture. You would have to set up another tank, probably quite a big one, make sure it has adequate filtration. Keep the water in pristine condition at old times, a lot of tank maintenance in other words. You will also have to feed them on the correct food which in most cases is live baby brine shrimp. And then when they are big enough, you would have to find an outlet that would take them off your hands, unless you want to keep them all, depending on how many Oscars survive, you would have to get your self an absolutely huge tank, several hundred gallons.

My Oscars have laid eggs on occasions, but the ones I've got a moment haven't got as far as hatching out young. If it were to happen, I would just leave the fry to their own fate.It's not a straightforward task when breeding Oscars, it's certainly not something I would like to undertake because I just don't have the time or space any more.

You have to remember that we are dealing with fish that can reach in excess of 12 inches, if it was just guppies, then you wouldn't have to worry about tank size.

as OFL pointed out, is your concern the hatchlings?
if not, then let it be and allow the nature take its
toll. if you have survivors, you can give them to a
friend or you can ask your lfs to cover them for you,
either by selling and give you share for the proceeds.
i believe your lfs will be grateful to you.

X2...............

any developments please.......

Thank you everyone for your advice. The eggs did hatch into what looked like a bunch of little tails squirming around on top of the rock. The day after they hatched the were all gone? I think mom and dad might have gotten disturbed with how many times everyone was going to the tank to look at them. Since is the fourth time they have laid eggs and also the furthest that the eggs have gotten I am assuming that in a few months I will have another go round at it. I do have a smaller aqauriam I can use if we decide to pull the eggs but i think it would be so much more exciting to see mom and dad do it as they would in the wild =)
Oh and one other thing? Is it common for a Tiger and an albino oscar to pair up like they did?? Again Thank you everyone and I will let you know when the next batch appears

yes its perfectly common for these strains of the oscar to pair up......well done and good luck!!!!!!