 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Pet Forum / Aquaria / Cichlids / February 2004Pairing up Oscars
I have 5 juvenile oscars (in a 300 litre tank) that I bought at the same time, all of a similar size, the idea being that a pair might form. They have grown at different rates and now the two largest (4"?) which are almost identical are dominating the tank hanging in mid-water at the front. The others hide most of the time. Before I return the other 3 to the shop can I be sure this is a pair? Have I read somewhere about temporary alliances of sub-adult males? Should I wait? Ade. Wait until you see fry. I had two Oscars fake me out once. I don't know if they were both males or the female had no eggs but nothing ever appeared even though they were going through all the motions. Big cichlids make so many babies you'll end up feeding most of them to your other tanks anyhow so don't worry about the first batch getting gobbled up. Once you get a pair they should spawn over and over and over. Unless your local store really needs hundreds of juvenile Oscars, frequently, you're going to have trouble getting rid of all of them. > I have 5 juvenile oscars (in a 300 litre tank) that I bought at the same > time, all of a similar size, the idea being that a pair might form. They [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Ade. > I have 5 juvenile oscars (in a 300 litre tank) that I bought at the same > time, all of a similar size, the idea being that a pair might form. They [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Ade. In your circumstance, where the Oscars are growing and developing in identical conditions, it is 99.9% certain that the two largest are males and the three smaller fish are female. You can confirm this if the two larger fish are also more brightly colored. Oscar pairs form with playing/wrestling/mouthing in addition to hanging around each other, so it's quite possible no mating pair has formed yet. Additionally, they will begin preparing a flat place in the tank for egg laying. Generally (there are exceptions) pairs begin forming at around 7 inches, which, if you are keeping them properly, will be about 6 or 7 months from now. --Mark Mark Stone tractorlegs at msn dot kom OSCAR Lovers! http://www.geocities.com/cichlidiot_2000/oscar.html The ".Edu" meens i are smart. |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2009 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.