I was unaware of my Oscars gender. I never thought about them beeding. I have had them for about two or three years. I have never noticed what i have now. I recently switched them to a much larger tank. They are in a 55 gallon tank now. I had a huge algi eater in the tank, which was causing to much nastiness, so i got rid of it today and was going to clean the tank because of all the crap from the algi eater. Then i realized the fish acting funny, sucking/biting the rock. I did remember seeing them dig a whole in the gravel few weeks ago and something that looked like white fuz floating. Now I went to feed them today and the smaller fish was not eating. She would slowly take it in then spit it out. So i came concerned and look up on internet. I now know that they are in egg laying process and i noticed fungi eggs and probably dead fry behind my huge rock and stuck to filter. Is it safe to clean the gravel and filter to possibly save the newly laid eggs? Im afraid since the tank is so dirty from the crap and the dead fry, that the new eggs wont hatch. If i clean it will it kill the new eggs or spook the fish to never lay again. HELP!

if the eggs are mixed with the substrates, you have slim chance of hatching.
there should be a slate or solid slab where your fishes could lay their eggs.

So shouldi clean the tank right now. Or would cleaning the gravel while they are in the stage before laying the eggs, affect the newly laid eggs. Am i able to quickly clean the gravel and move the bigger rock away from small rock?

Another question i have is that i have a huge and a somewhat small rock in the tank. The girl seems to hover over the larger one. This concernes me because the larger rock is not flat at all. its got humps and small slides. Then the male is hovering over the smaller rock that sits about two inches away from the larger one. I noticed a few dead fry behind the larger rock against the glass. Now what i want to do before she lays the eggs in vacume the dead and the fungus out so it is a cleaner area. Also remove the rocks that are in there now and replace with a flat rock that is better suited for her to lay her eggs. If i do this will it affect her egg laying? Will she still lay them?

Jennatapple wrote:


I would get in then now and just clean your tank removing anything that will decay and cause water quality problems, don't worry about your fish, they will be okay, they will get on with things once you've finished. If an Oscar hasn't got a flat rock to lay on, they will find the next best thing, even sometimes clearing the substrates away and laying eggs on bare bottom of the tank.