Oscars preparing to mate or just showing off territorial behaviour?

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Xeno

Xeno

Aimara
MFK Member
Sep 1, 2014
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Germany
Hey,
Now after 7 months my O's grew to over 20cm lengths (got them at 5cm) and started to interact more with each other.
They are by themselves in a 6.5ft by 20in by 20in tank.
About 90% of the time they are swimming next to each other almost touching the fins and body of the other oscar.
Of course it would be fantastic if it is a pair but I am not sure about it since those two were just kept together as juveniles and did not form a pair out of a group.

I recorded the behaviour they do show since about 2 weeks.
Rarely the larger or more bulky specimen chases the smaller one for about 10 seconds without really attacking it.
They do lip locking and the flaring as seen in the video.

What would be your guess?
A pair or just some oscars starting to get territorial?
 
They are a pair but could be 2 females u can vent them and c if they are male or female. The best thing to do is wait and see if eggs are laid and look at the organs on both males will be pointy and female rounded.
 
Xeno said:
Hey,
Now after 7 months my O's grew to over 20cm lengths (got them at 5cm) and started to interact more with each other.
They are by themselves in a 6.5ft by 20in by 20in tank.
About 90% of the time they are swimming next to each other almost touching the fins and body of the other oscar.
Of course it would be fantastic if it is a pair but I am not sure about it since those two were just kept together as juveniles and did not form a pair out of a group.

I recorded the behaviour they do show since about 2 weeks.
Rarely the larger or more bulky specimen chases the smaller one for about 10 seconds without really attacking it.
They do lip locking and the flaring as seen in the video.

What would be your guess?
A pair or just some oscars starting to get territorial?
Click to expand...


Jexnell Jexnell
pops pops
 
That looks like courtship behavior.

You can tell male from female by looking at the underside of the fish about 2/3 of the way down. You'll see two small holes close together, one being the genital opening and the other the anus. On a male they look like oo but on a female they look like Oo.
 
This is normal oscar growing up. How many? Just 2?
They are not sexually mature yet.
I have 4 oscars that periodically flare gills at each other and the next minute laying fins all over each other. They are 6".
It doesn't mean they are going to mate and it doesn't mean that when they are 12" they are all gonna get along.
 
My Flowerhorn Broly and my Red Devil Phoenix do the exact same thing. I havent even figured out 100% if Broly is male. The strange thing is that when the lights are on and bright, Phoenix chasing Broly to the very top of the right tank corner and if he moves she pecks at him and he seems to submit. THEN when the lights go out or I put the lights on dark purple, he immediately leaves the corner and rushes toward her and they do just like your Oscars. When the lights go back o n she chases him to the corner again and he LISTENS. All this has been going on for weeks, until today. She hasn't pushed him in the corner yet. Also when they are "frolicking", Broly doesn.t allow Phoenix to leave their favorite corner., if she tries he rangles her like a stray cow. So I'm puzzled by this behavior too
 
LBDave said:
This is normal oscar growing up. How many? Just 2?
They are not sexually mature yet.
I have 4 oscars that periodically flare gills at each other and the next minute laying fins all over each other. They are 6".
It doesn't mean they are going to mate and it doesn't mean that when they are 12" they are all gonna get along.
Click to expand...
I have also mentioned in the forums that 2 oscars may end up a problem due to pecking order. A "harem" is a better solution but you need room. Which even I do not have at the moment.
If you have 2 oscars and they end up getting along you are lucky.
If you have 2 that end up breeding you are very lucky (if you have a dedicated tank for them).
 
Oscars crews together like that, no matter what there sex is, as far telling sex. Until I see a male actually fertilizing the eggs, not just going through the act, but appendage down and fertilizing, there is no real way to sex them.
 
Hey,
first of all here's a clip of the aquarium:
LBDave LBDave
I used to keep 10 O's (juveniles in 3 different tanks all 120g and larger) but decided to sell all but these two because I was not really satisfied with the "standard specimen" I bought locally.
I planned on getting some more long finned specimen the same quality but that did not work out.
I ordered 6 long finned oscars but they all came in such a bad condition full of internal parasites and ichtyo they died during the treatment.
Since then I've kind of given up on getting LF oscars to make them form a pair out of a group (and boy was I lucky I did quarantine them and didn't put them in a tank with my two beauties).
They are 20-22cm long and should at least begin to get into sexual maturity which I would day I can tell by the changes in their behaviour recently.
The tank's a 6.5ft by 20in in which no other fish are housed so if they'd wanna start breeding they can get right into it (I'd only have to put a sponge on the filter).

Oh I know that the chances of two random juveniles growing up together ending up being a breeding pair are dang slim but maybe... MAYBE I am THAT lucky this time.
And if not I guess I'll have to get some lemon oscars or/and Colombian wildcaughts to make them form a pair.
Because god knows when I'll be able to get my hands on decent LFs again.

pops pops
So it is a common thing for oscars to form some sort of bond no matter the sex?
That's interesting.
I never had this with SA cichlids before but it happened with two Thorichthys maculipinnis here.
 
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