Odd Behavior

[arrluk]

I'm in the process of moving out my four Africans out of my 55 gal. tank, but in the mean time, I'd like to report some odd behavior about my oscar.

He's been fairly kind to many of my Africans ever since he was put in the tank. He hasn't grown significantly recently, so I don't think that's the problem. Here we go:

Normally, he ignores the cichilds and minds his own business. Recently, however, he's become quite aggressive...to one particular African. This one is my male Ahyli (I really have no idea how you spell it, he's blue with yellow-ish fins on the bottom). Every time he comes near my oscar, he's visciously attacked. All my other cichlids are left alone.

As I'm looking at the tank now, my poor abused cichlid (True) is on the far side of the tank while my bumblebee cichlid and unidentified other African are chilling with my oscar. Very odd.

Just wanted to see if I could get an answer. Oh! And one more thing, he's been making a sort of depression (nest?) in the gravel on his side of the tank. However, there is no other oscar in the tank. In fact, there's only one female cichlid in the tank (as far as I can identify).

Any ideas?

[Giddy012]

May be time for a larger tank. Other than that you could add more hiding places for everyone, could help out a bit.

[swordtailbreedr]

oscars love to play in gravel i suspect he is just playing

[arrluk]

Playing is getting him in trouble with me. As for getting a bigger tank, I'm moving the cichlids out into another tank anyway, I was just curious on his abrupt change in behavior.

Still, whenever I (or any of my family) put a finger up to the tank (or our face, whatever), he comes after us with his mouth open, attacking the side of the tank. To see if he was really aggressive, I stuck my finger in to see if it would get taken off, the little wuss only went to the bottom of the tank. He's an odd one, my Steve.

[redpaulhus]

He or she has probably finally reached sexual maturity.
he/she is looking to create a good environment to raise young - which means removing predatory fish from the area.

Oscars usually aren't "mean" in the "I'm going to kill you just because I can" sense - they're just big hungrey eaters (and everybody's on the menu) - except when they start thinking family thoughts (at least IME). Then they can get pretty territorial, although if you give them enough space they usually won't dominate a whole (6ft) tank.

[arrluk]

Oh, I know he isn't mean mean, but hungry-mean. I'm currently moving the Africans out, anyway. How much longer should it take for him to reach full size? He's around 9-10inches now.

By the way, he's calmed down a bit in the past few days, he isn't going after my fish AS aggressively as he did before.

OH! And any suggestions on food? Oddly, my fish don't seem to like any of the food I present them other than the standard Cichlid Sticks (by Tetra I believe). Other than that, they don't really go "crazy" for anything else, even that stuff called: "Cichlid ATTACK" or something.

My oscar doesn't eat the Oscar Grow food, either. Bah, they're all a bunch of picky eaters...

[redpaulhus]

My favorite foods for oscars include krill (dried or frozen), shrimp (from the seafood counter at the grocery store), earthworms (live), scallops, crickets (live, vitamin loaded by feeding a quality flake food to the crickets), and various floating food sticks or pellets (I buy most of my food from Ken at http://Kensfish.com but his largest floating pellets are a little small for my oscar, so I also feed hikari pellets ). When I have Ocean Nutrition Formula One cubes in the freezer, I feed those to my oscar as well.

Best thing I've found for appetite stimulation is water changes - nothing kills my appetite like a dirty resturant, and I figure my fish feel the same way.

[arrluk]

lol, I don't think that's the problem, though, considering I'm very up-to-date with my water changes. Thanks for the food options! I'll be sure to try them all out (I've actually tried krill, they seemed to like that so I have to buy them some more).

My mom has been haggling me to move my oscar into a 30gal tank until he gets "too big for it" and leave my africans in the 55, stating that why should I waste a tank with one fish in it when I could leave the Africans in there? Then when Steve (my oscar) gets too big for the 30, I could switch them (Africans in the 30 and my oscar in the 55). Personally, I just want to keep the Africans in the other tank and Steve in the 55 since I don't think he will be comfortable and happy in the 30. What are your thoughts? Keep him in the 55 or in the 30 until he's too big for it?

Currently he's around 9-10inches I believe (I think he's already too big for it). Thanks!

[Gourami Swami]

He's much too big for the 30... and soon will be too big for the 55. For a large oscar like him, a 75 gallon is a good minimum. Think, he can get to be 14 inches long, and a 55 gallon is only 12 inches wide.

[arrluk]

That's what I thought. However, I was told that I could keep him in the 55 as long as he was the only one in there.

I can't get rid of him (and I most definitely don't want to give him up) and my mom will not let me get a 75 gal tank. Sigh.

[Gourami Swami]

Well... A 55 is not a very good setup at all for an oscar, but it is barely enough water to not cause enough health problems, so i guess he stays. Just keep up with weekly 40% water changes.

[Kageshi17]

You're 18.

Move out.

[Eraserhead]

Heh heh heh...

[Mazzy]

So the Oscar is now seperate from the Afs.? And how are the Afs. acting together in a 30??
I agree with the person who said the Oscar is just reaching sexual maturity. He/she will never get that its the only Oscar around. My Frontosa used to make nests all the time when he came of age. I always felt bad because I couldn't help but think that he was thinking any minute another Frontosa would just HAVE to come swimming by because he couldn't be the only one in the world
Maybe you can work on your mom a little by pointing out that a 75 would still be only four feet long, just like the 55 and that you could most likely (depending on what you have I guess) use the same equipment you are using now. And start checking the want ads for a cheap one then point out that it wouldn't cost THAT much to upgrade.
I've found that reef internet sites like Reef Central have people selling set ups or just tanks all the time and the tanks are always real cheap (usually way more so than freshwater sites). Pretty much $1 per gallon or maybe $100 for a 75 with stand. Check it out.