Pet Forum / Aquaria / Cichlids / February 2004

Clearly we can't climb into an Oscar's brain and see what he's
thinking. However, Oscars *seem* to build emotional attachments to
tankmates, particularly other Oscars and (intrestingly enough) a
species called "Chocolate Cichlid". If an Oscar is raised with another
Oscar, he becomes attached, and then when seperated undergoes a lot of
stress. They seem, from that point on, to not be themselves until
given another Oscar tankmate. If an Oscar is raised alone, he never
has a chance to build the relationship, and then usually does fine
alone. Some aquarists claim that he then builds his "attachment" to
his human owner, but I've never seen that happen. (Other than at
feeding time -- )

Herbert Axelrod, in a volume he wrote in the 1950s cataloging species,
gives an enchanting account of an Oscar he kept that went through a
mourning period after a tankmate (another Oscar) died. He even
introduced another Oscar; the original Oscar perked up for a couple of
days, but when he realized that the new fish was not his old mate, he
killed it, and then went back under stress!

--Mark