Do i have a pair?

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crazyaboutcichlids

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 20, 2008
100
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australia
Hi,
About 4 months ago i started with fish and got some guppies etc. Not long after that i had gone to the lfs and got a oscar:D. I now have a few, i have a 4' 18" 15" and have 5 o's in there now. They are getting too big for the tank and i need to split some up. Now for my question, My first and second oscar have never even looked sideways at each other, but no lip locking (that i have got to see), alittle tail slapping and alot of swimming together. They will snap at anyone else in the tank, and even stop each other from fighting with others.
 
mabye seperate them and give us an update on there behavior that tank is a little over stocked with 5 Os depending on there size
 
Yeah, my tank is overstocked the are from 4" to 9" nose to tail just got heaps of tanks big and small just need to pick them up. Last night i put in a divider and put one of them in with the third fish in the puzzle. I have a Red(big red), Albino tiger and an Albino red(oscar "real original!" lol). These three fish are the biggest in the tank and have been in together for a few months. So far has been so good untill the other day as i had posted the albino tiger started getting attacked by the albino red the other fish (red o) has always been boss (all fish obey King Red lol). I the tiger o has been digging and showing signs of wanting to breed and red has been tail slapping with it and laying on the bottom of the tank. So while red is tail slapping with both, the other two seem to be fighting over it. Ok so red and the tiger one side the rest the other. Red sort of happy playing with tiger but can see he is missing the other one who is sitting at the glass watching all sad. So today i have swapped put in oscar and red and the tiger with the others. They seem alittle happier but much the same result!
 
Oh, one more thing. Red and the tiger have mouthed each other (not locked) and flared gills and stuff. Red and Oscar never have they just get along its a strong friendship if nothing else.
 
The only way to determine if they're truely a pair of just buddying up in that particular tank would be to separate them, but from what you've described it sounds like you very well may have a pair.
 
Put them all in the 8' tank,let them sort it out.Thats your best chance of getting a pair
 
If you suspect the two of being a pair you can leave them in and remove the other fish - if they start to beat on eachother and don't continue staying at eachothers side it's safe to assume they aren't a pair and add them to the larger tank...done deal.

The only way to truely know you've got a pair is to, obviously, see them lay eggs and defend a territory together.
 
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