1)Is clearing gravel from a spot a sign of breeding, even when its just one oscar doing it?

2)and do both the males and females do this?

A lady at a LFS said yes to the first and females only to the second....

Oscars will start shovelling gravel at a very young age, I think it's probably instinct. It is also something they would do when they start breeding, they make little pits and transfer fry into them when they become detached from the rock.. In fact many cichlids do this including severums.

I've seen both male and female doing it as well as cleaning rocks

my oscars cosntantly do it and only now and again do i find eggs
theyve done somthing this time as they dug the pit and the male stays over it i havnt seen if theres any there yet as when i go near he attacks the glas visiously so i dont bother now as hel end up doing injury or something
i was lead to beleive its mainly the male who does all the cleaning and shoveling then will get slightly aggressive toward the femal when hes done to bring her round to thinking of having babies. mine constaly swims over to her and makes her go look at his handy work but shes never impressed haha

Thanks, he's about 15-16 months old now and I'd never seen him clear a spot this big before. He didn't get aggressive, if anything he got lazier

Thanks!!!

its normal hes probly making a sopace for the eggs as they lay on smooth surfaces
get a nice piece of slate for them or ive seen bricks used. but give them a good clean and soak befor you put them in tank as you dnt want to upset the water with contaminents

seems that they r getting ready to do the funky chicken.
stick a slate or ceramic tile in there and see what they do with it and keep yr camera handy so we can have a peak at what they get up to aswell.