hey guys, i am a little confused with the current situation of my oscars. i've got 2 red oscars, aprox around 9 to 10 inches each. about 2 weeks ago one started digging up the sand & has since gone off food. it took a few pellets oscasionally but that's about it. the second oscar soon followed, it started exploring the same cleared area in the tank & now has gone off its food aswell, it does nibble on a couple of pellets but doesn't feed like it normally does. both of them take turns to check out the cleared area of the tank & then swim away. I've had oscar in the past do this but they would soon come around & start eating. i've tried different food aswell but no luck.

this has gone on for nearly 10 days now, the water conditions are perfectly fine so there's no issue with the water quality.

if this is indeed signs of breeding, do oscars go off food for such a long time? also is there any disease i should keep an eye out for?

at the start of spawning, you will experience two weeks of not eating.
keep on digging and will drive everyone that comes near the nest.

just keep the water under check and it will be fine. do you have slate
inside your tank? any idea how old are those fishes? 18 months to 2 years
old will lay eggs....

PAUL wrote:


thats odd paul cause mine only stop eating one day before they spawn.

necromancer4 wrote:

if it is regularly spawning ...yes it is...sometimes, they do not
even have any fasting at all...but during the initial spawning...
they did refuse foods for sometime.... presently, one of my tiger
is not eating also and try to pull all things inside..... 1 year old,
10 inches tiger... who is nut, driving away everyone inside....

thanks for the reply paul. i am not sure exactly how old these guys are. i've had them for around 6 months or so & i guess they must have been around 3 - 4 months old at the store. i do not have any slate in the tank, they dug up the sand to reveal the bottom glass.

i'll keep an eye on the water & post updates.

just a quick update, the oscars seem to be hanging around the cleared spot a lot more than before, still not feeding well. i will be doing a water change tomorrow, is this going to cause any problems?

water change is always a comforting changes in the tank.
fish will love to have good water condition so go ahead.
have you put any slate yet? a bricks or flat rock will do.
just clean it before putting inside.

i've done the water change & also added a "almost" flat rock in the tank. all they did was cover the rock with sand. they still keep inspecting the bottom glass area they dug up but by morning even that is covered with sand again, but they clean it out again during the day. my only issue is they are not feeding at all.

any update?????

nope, still the same. i gave them some blood worms last night which they took but it took them forever to eat it. they normally finish it in a couple of minutes. they still continue to swim around the cleared spot & spend the morning clearing the area.

also if they are indeed breeding is it necessary that they should be some aggression?? my oscars are just calm swimming along next to each other.

please check if the oscar activity is similar to this.
s386.photobucket.com/albums/oo308/PAULHD...ent=oski18feb09V.flv

yes its very similar to the video, but my Oscars have been doing this for over 10 days now, once they clear the area of the tank they come by occasionally look at it & swim away. i guess its best if i post some pics or a video.