Oscar Breeding??? Please Read!!!

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maynardwix

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 31, 2007
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Florida
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I have two Oscars in a 150 gallon tank, I got them last July when they were about 1 1/2 - 2 inches. In the past few days, my albino Oscar has been clearing an area in the sand exposing the bottom of the tank, also been showing some agression toward the other fish in the tank except the other Oscar. I did a water change and tank cleaning tonight and the albino was very hostile and wanted me to have nothing to do with that side of the tank. The red Oscar is not really doing anything, not showing any aggression, not helping to clean the area on the bottom of the tank, and still eating like normal (the albino has not been eating much for a day or so now).

My question is if anyone has any experience with this. I have no clue if these are a male and a female, or two females, or two males. All I know is that the signs that the albino is showing is that it is getting ready to mate, just don't know if the red Oscar should be participating or what. Can someone that has had experience with breeding Oscars (or any other SA cichlid for that matter) give me an idea of what may be going on, and if the albino would be preparing a spot even if there were no other Oscar of the opposite sex.
 
how big are these fish now?

albino should be male. post pics so we can id properly. look closely at the black spots on the dorsal fin, the male should distinctly have 3 and the female 2 but this is not a positive id really. can u take them to the LFS for venting? post pics first! red may be female i think seeing as the albino is cleaning and not just defending the area i.e. she is 'encouraging' him to go into breeding mode. the female, if ready to mate should have a small maybe 1.5mm breeding tube protruding and visible behind her anal fin. if you want to breed be prepared, you can make money selling oscar fry but lfs's will often take them from you for a dolar each maybe.

lots of good 25% 3 times a week w/c's get the female on a nice diet of bloodworms, brine shrimp, earthworms, cichlid gold to condition her and get her ready to breed. whats ur temperature?

if that doesn't work, maybe divide the tank and separate the two physically but not hormonally. if the tend to spend alot of time together, remove the divider and see what happens. i find switching off the tank light to help.

GL.
 
When my oscars spawned, 1 would prepare a spot while the other watched. The hole digger was always the Male in my pairs. After 1 or 2 days, sometimes up to a week later they would spawn on the prepared site, or abandon that site and prepare and spawn on a new site the same day the new one was prepared.
 
its not unusual for cichlids to dig, my dad's oscar does so every now and then when he feel's like it. they could well be breeding but there is always the possibility that the oscar is just digging and changing his territory.

i have bread Jags before (but this will be different because i dont think oscars are the same) my male jag always beats up the female and chases, rams, bites etc until she lays eggs.
 
js302;1691405; said:
how big are these fish now?

albino should be male. post pics so we can id properly. look closely at the black spots on the dorsal fin, the male should distinctly have 3 and the female 2 but this is not a positive id really. can u take them to the LFS for venting? post pics first! red may be female i think seeing as the albino is cleaning and not just defending the area i.e. she is 'encouraging' him to go into breeding mode. the female, if ready to mate should have a small maybe 1.5mm breeding tube protruding and visible behind her anal fin. if you want to breed be prepared, you can make money selling oscar fry but lfs's will often take them from you for a dolar each maybe..............
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Thanks for the responce, I have not had any sure signs of breeding yet as far as any breeding tube protruding, but did have a problem last night. Everything has been going fine, the albino O is about 9 inches and the red O is about 10 inches, for the past week off and on they have both been hanging around the spot that had been cleared, sometimes both picking at the sand and chasing the other fish to the other side of the tank.

All of a sudden last night the albino became very aggressive toward the red, started off as lip locking, then progressed into chasing and niping at her sides. The albino had the red totally backed down and kept at it picking at it's sides, lip locking, and all around bullying. I let this go on for a couple hours to see if it would stop, but the red O started showing some injuries to it's sides. It was getting late and I didn't want to let it go on all night like that in fear that I would wake up to the red oscar dead from the picking, so I quickly set up a 55 I had setting around and caught the Albino and transfered it to the 55 for now.

So now I have them separated because of the aggression shown from the albino, but don;t know what to do, If I should leave them separated? Try reintroducing the albino in a day or so? I am just unsure of what to do now. :(

Mattyou;1691457; said:
When my oscars spawned, 1 would prepare a spot while the other watched. The hole digger was always the Male in my pairs. After 1 or 2 days, sometimes up to a week later they would spawn on the prepared site, or abandon that site and prepare and spawn on a new site the same day the new one was prepared.
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Thanks for your input too, if you could have a look above at what is happening now and give me some insight, it would be greatly apreciated.
 
I had a pair in a 180. I had a slate burried in the gravel. The male would dig it out and the female would just hang around them, they did this a few times but never laid eggs. I was told they needs lots of privacy and I had lots of other fish. Also my male ended up chasing my female out of the tank and she died. So I cant say I was successful.:irked:
 
hotfishgirls;1714658; said:
My pair are breeding with fry,they dug pits for over a year before they decided to spawn.
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Did one ever show any aggession torward the other, as I said above, it got so bad last night I had to set up an emergency 55 gallon and remove the albino from the tank.
 
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