Having Trouble Reintroducing my Oscar

[Natural Born Chaos]

About a week ago I came home and noticed my oscar, Cutie Pie scratched to ****, so I put him in my 10 gallon quarantine tank (small I know, but he's only 3.5" and my larger one is occupied) until his wounds were healed. I'm actually not sure who attacked him, it could have been my larger oscar (8"), but he's never gone after him before. They're always together, at night, they swim together and follow each other. I actually think it was my synodontis euptera, but I'm not sure. this morning I took him out and put him in with the other fish, a few minutes later I saw my other oscar, my larger severum and my catfish chasing him. I took him out and put him back in the 10 gallon. It's actually quite surprising because the first few days he was out of the tank my oscar and severum stopped eating. I would have left him in there, however his mouth is extremely deformed so he's unable to fight back.
Anyway, any ideas on how to reintroduce him into the aquarium? Or should I look into buying another tank?

 

[duanes]

That looks like damage from another cichlid (your larger dominant Oscar). You may need to keep it quarantined for months, or perhaps forever. They may be 2 males, that can be incompatible, or an unreceptive female (certain death for her, if you don't keep them separate). You don't say the size of your main tank? Size matters with Oscars.

 

[welsher7]

I would say its the larger oscar too. I would look in to another tank or larger tank. When reintroducing a weak fish I always found removing the aggressive fish and moving the driftwood/pots/rocks around to break up territories. Then add the weak fish to the tank and let it get used to the tank, I would say a week atleast. Finally add the aggressive fish back in. This way the weak fish isn't being introduced in to the aggressive fish's space.

 

[1bigdovii]

I know years ago when i had oscars i had two on seperate occasions that would have like well for lack of better words night terrors and slam into everything beat himself all up. Not shure if anyone else ever experienced this or how common it is but that might be a possibility. I only knew mine did that cause my tank was in my bedroom and witnessed it a few times. Other than that you could try larger tank just put him in first then the others later.

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[RLHam3]

I've specifically had trouble with synodontis being aggressive towards oscars before. I can't really draw the line between deformity and injury, but those do look much more serious than any catfish of mine has done to a cichlid. That oscar may need to be kept by itself until it is confident enough to fend off other fish

 

[Natural Born Chaos]

Sorry, I should have mentioned the tank size, it's 350 gallons. I had just bought a 292 gallon, however I cracked the bottom of it so unfortunately I had to buy another.
I had taken everything out of the tank, he was moved shortly after a water change. I've had the tanks side by side so I would think they wouldn't have gone after him. Cutie Pie has been so anxious to get back in there it sucks that they're all attacking him.

The reason why I thought it was the catfish is because a while ago when I had my oscar, my bichir, my eel, my blood parrot cichlid and synodontis together in a tank my oscar got attacked pretty bad. And it looked similar. (See pictures below, there's also one of Cutie Pie's 'Before' that was also before he changed color.)

 

[Stratoquarius]

I had a little oscar in my 225 that was beaten and had its eye pulled out. hes now recovering nicely in a 20 gallon tank and i will soon hope to introduce him back into the tank, so i do feel your pain and understand what youre doing.
I plan on getting rid of the fish that attacked him. which should allow the oscar to go back into the tank with a clean slate, as such.

 

[OscarMan0315]

Sorry, I should have mentioned the tank size, it's 350 gallons. I had just bought a 292 gallon, however I cracked the bottom of it so unfortunately I had to buy another.
I had taken everything out of the tank, he was moved shortly after a water change. I've had the tanks side by side so I would think they wouldn't have gone after him. Cutie Pie has been so anxious to get back in there it sucks that they're all attacking him.

The reason why I thought it was the catfish is because a while ago when I had my oscar, my bichir, my eel, my blood parrot cichlid and synodontis together in a tank my oscar got attacked pretty bad. And it looked similar. (See pictures below, there's also one of Cutie Pie's 'Before' that was also before he changed color.)

that looks alot like fin rot. mine had it for a while, now hes all healed up. Aquarium salt and melafix.

 

[Natural Born Chaos]

that looks alot like fin rot. mine had it for a while, now hes all healed up. Aquarium salt and melafix.

I was showing pictures from a while ago, when my other oscar got attacked.. About a year ago, I was comparing them saying that both looked similar and the older one I believe was also done my a synodontis cat, since that was the only thing that could harm it at the time. It wasn't fin rot.. I can assure you, in order to get fin rot you need ammonia, nitrites or high nitrates in the aquarium, I've never had a water quality problem in my South American tank. And I don't think scales come off with fin rot, I could be wrong though. So yeah, a definite no to fin rot or any other diseases, bacterial infections or parasites.

 

[kageh124]

I know years ago when i had oscars i had two on seperate occasions that would have like well for lack of better words night terrors and slam into everything beat himself all up. Not shure if anyone else ever experienced this or how common it is but that might be a possibility. I only knew mine did that cause my tank was in my bedroom and witnessed it a few times. Other than that you could try larger tank just put him in first then the others later.

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You know... I noticed that too. Every now and then, I noticed that after the lights went off, they would either flip out... Or they were fighting? My very first set of oscars I had back in the late 90's always seemed to be wrestling or something at night because I remember hearing the chaos that was going on.


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