Oscars not getting along

S

shediddily

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Oct 17, 2005
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Ok .. so i've got two large oscars in a 125 gallon tank... when they were introduced they did a lot of lip locking and they both swam side by side and were very nice to eachother... they also started "quivering" almost vibrating. now the smaller one just sits in the corner on the bottom and the other comes by every once in a while and they open they're mouths and kind of yell at eachother. Eventually the bigger one goes about his business... the smaller one doesn't seem too happy...

i've read that the lip locking and vibrating is a sign of breeding but they don't look like they like eachother anymore...

any ideas?
 
i've read that the lip locking and vibrating is a sign of breeding
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it 'can' be, but it's also a sign of two male cichlids trying to establish dominance. since you cannot sex oscars without venting them, you may have two males who just don't like each other. the smaller one may simply be subdominant and the kind of guy that people kick sand in their face at the beach. ;)
 
jm1212 said:
does the littler one get enough food?

are they the only fish in the tank?
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i think he or she gets enough food.... no there are no other fish in the tank

how am i supposed to know if they are going to mate or if i'm going to end up with a really upset or possibly dead oscar....
 
how long have they been together?

sounds like typical oscar behavior to me..
 
i'd suggest separating these fish or you will almost certainly lose the smaller one. try an incomplete tank divider in which you've cut two rectangular 'pass-thru's', sized so the smaller fish can fit through but the larger one cannot. this may help to establish some sense of equality in the tank.
 
the problem with dividing the tank like that is that their size isn't that much of a differance... if i make a hole then they could probably both go through it...

its just that the larger one is a little bigger and seems to be the more dominant one ...


i introduced the larger oscar about two weeks ago...

i did put up a divider and now the smaller oscar isn't sitting around in the corner all day ... its starting to swim around again....
 
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