I have Roscoe (adult 'albino' who is orange with a white face) & Boscoe ( adult red), with 3 Bala sharks, 2 tinfoil barbs, 2 15" plecos, 2 Cory cats & 3 Eclipse cats in a 210. (The PH shows neutral, the nitrites show safe, as do the nitrates.) The oscars are almost 2. They appear to be a mated pair.
They don't do the violence toward each other anymore (well, that I've seen) but they appear to be staking out various spots in the tank as their own. When they get like this, their appetite is off & Boscoe gets VERY aggressive towards US, as well as the other fish. The other fish stay away from them & their chosen areas.

My problem is they seem to have staked out the area where I put down the zuchinni for the plecos for their own. They are moving rocks, a fake log & are leaving the gravel alone. But when I put my arm in to get the old zuchinni to replace it, Boscoe tries to hit me. He's brought blood once. I've tried moving the zuchinni to the other end of the tank, but he gets rough if I go there.

I need to do some vacuuming in the tank, but I've told my husband I will not try it unless he's here to run defense for me. I've tried the pellets they love to distract him, but he's having none of it.

How often does this behavior come up? I've seen no eggs, but if they have at night, I really don't think anything would be left because of the sharks & catfish. This getting mean is getting old. What can I do, other than keep trying to dodge them?

LOL, Dodging is all you can do. I use a net with one had to hold them away and vacuum with the other. LOL... It does sound as if they are in a mating cycle. But that doesn't mean they are a pair. You could have 2 females with the same results.

All you can do is try and avoid getting bit again. I once had to move my female ito a bucket to vacuum. She can be a shit!

Good Luck

My Vieja behaves bad from time to time and I threatened to net him once.
Since that time i only have to show the net to him and he'll bounce back.
This will bring some additional stress on the fish, but maintenance will be less stressfull to you, when your fish is not constantly attacking you!

Ok. I have a large net. Boscoe backs off if he sees the handle, even though he's never been netted. He will be soon, if he bites me again.

Thank you!

I think I like the bucket idea! That would be as a last resort, though.